Zeskie v. Pennsylvania Coal Co.

Citations

• 241 Pa. 183
• 88 A. 414
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 758

Syllabus

<p>negligence — Master and servant — Goal mine — BraTceman—Dangerous employment — Inexperienced workman — Failure to instruct.</p> <p>1. It is the duty of the employer when the employee is engaged in dangerous work to instruct not only the young but also the inexperienced adult person.</p> <p>2. In an action by an employee against a coal company for damages for personal injuries suffered by the plaintiff while working as a brakeman in defendant’s mine, the questions of defendants’ negligence and plaintiff’s contributory negligence are for the jury where it appears that the plaintiff had been employed by the defendant company in its coal mine as a door tender and driver for several years prior to the accident, but that on the day before the accident his employment was changed to that of a brakeman on the compressed air motor which was used in hauling cars in the mine; that he had been informed on that day that the man who ran the motor would show him what to do; that the latter told him that his duties would comprise among other things sanding the track and that when he was so doing he should sit upon the bumpers of the motor, without instructing him as to the manner of sanding the track or warning him as to the dangers to be incurred when performing the service and how to avoid them; that while so engaged he was injured by a collision between the motor upon the bumpers of which he was riding and some empty cars left standing on the track; that it was the duty of a stationary engineer to give notice of an obstruction on the track and that immediately before the accident the latter had indicated that the track was clear; and it also appears from the testimony that the only practicable way the work of sanding the track could be done was that adopted by the plaintiff, and the latter testified that he had seen others sanding the tracks while sitting on the front bumpers and had never seen the work done in any other way, and also that he had never performed such services