184 A. 290 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1936
Argued March 2, 1936. In this workmen's compensation case the claimant, *382 Isabella Brown, has a judgment on account of the death of her husband, Arthur Brown, who died from injuries received in an accident while in the course of his employment with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, the defendant. The employer has appealed to this court alleging that Brown was engaged in interstate commerce at the time he was injured. We are of the opinion that the referee, board and common pleas court were incorrect in holding that he was not engaged at the time of the accident in interstate commerce.
The facts bearing on this feature of the case are not in dispute. The employee was at the time engaged as a watchman at an intersection of the railroad and a public highway in Plainsville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, for the defendant, and that company paid him for his services. The company was engaged as a common carrier in both interstate and intrastate commerce and a large number of trains moving from within and without this state and carrying interstate shipments passed over the crossing daily. The referee further found as follows: "10. That the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company maintains a watchman's shanty at the Plainsville crossing for the use and comfort of the crossing watchman and as a place in which to keep the various signal devices used in connection with the watchman's duty. There were no gates at this crossing. The duties of the watchman were to be on the alert to safeguard the property of his employer and the property and lives of the public. The shanty was heated by a coal stove and had windows on the several sides from which the attendant could get a clear view of the tracks in both directions and of the crossing itself with its approaches. 11. That during the forenoon of December 6th, 1932, Arthur Brown, while on duty and when in the act of shaking the grate of the stove in his shanty, bumped his right elbow, causing an abrasion. 12. That the injury on Arthur Brown's elbow became *383 infected producing cellulitis of his right arm and causing his death from Septicemia, January 5th, 1933."
If the deceased was employed in interstate commerce when the accident occurred, the consequent rights and liabilities arose under the federal Employers' Liability Act, and the state statutes do not apply: N.Y. Cent. R. Co. v. Porter,
The decedent was just as clearly engaged in interstate transportation or in work "so closely related to it as to be practically a part of it" (Pedersen v. D.L. W.R.R. Co.,
In Elder v. Penna. R.R. Co.,
Also see Knowles v. N.Y., N.H. H.R. Co.,
The court below and the appellee relied on the case of Gasser v. Central R. Co. of N.J.,
The judgment of the court below is reversed and here entered for the defendant.