267 Pa. 352 | Pa. | 1920
Opinion by
If we assume defendant was negligent, there is not the shadow of a doubt but that plaintiff was likewise negligent. The evidence shows plaintiff was assisting, with six others, in moving a carload of coal from between two tracks of the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Company into the gas plant of that company. As relating to the accident : Track No. 1 was a short sidetrack or spur from track No. 2. The coal from a car on track No. 1 was piled between these tracks, shoveled into wheelbarrows and hauled up an incline into the gas plant. The place where the men worked was lighted, sufficiently for their
There is nothing in the case, however, to charge defendant with negligence. It was moving from place to place, on the tracks of the Midvale Company, cars of this latter company. The uses of the tracks in a manufacturing establishment are various and complicated, and, as each track is liable to a certain amount of use, they may all be considered dangerous. To require that over each foot of track a train crew should be obliged to flag its way by a man walking in front of the engine or cars would so retard the work of these establishments as to make the use of their tracks burdensome, if not prohibitive. But the track at this point was not used by workmen. There is no duty on trainmen to be observant where they do not know of, or are not required to anticipate, the presence of workmen or others on the tracks; and they are not required to be observant as to persons who may occasionally move around over the yard; though they may be required to know where workmen are engaged about or on the tracks, as in Van Zandt v. Phila., B. & W. R. R., 248 Pa. 276. They did not know, nor were they required to anticipate, plaintiff would carelessly place himself in the path of the moving-train. Defendant owed him no duty, and the attempt to imply one, because an engine passed the men at work between the tracks sometime before, wholly fails, for it is not identified as the one connected with the shifting crew. Nor does it appear that any part of the work took place on track No. 2. No warning, by light or signal, of the cars’ approach, was necessary, A jury cannot be permitted to find anything negligent which is less than the failure to discharge a legal duty: Cunningham v. Phila. & R. Ry. Co., 249 Pa. 134, 137. On either ground, the court below was right in directing a verdict for defendant.
The judgment is affirmed.