271 Pa. 122 | Pa. | 1921
Opinion by
Plaintiff was employed by defendant, in interstate commerce, as an assistant to A. D. Morales in the Automatic Signal Maintenance Department of defendant company and as such his duties covered that part of defendant’s road extending between Salamanca, New York, and Eavenna, Ohio. Defendant furnished Morales with a small four-wheel gasoline motor designed to be operated on railroad tracks and to carry employees from place to place in the discharge of their duties. Morales was in sole charge of the motor, plaintiff having no control whatever over its operation, On July 5,1917, as the motor was being operated down a grade, at a speed estimated at from twenty to thirty miles an hour, it left the track, with the result that plaintiff received injuries for which he seeks to recover compensation in this action. The court below submitted the case to the jury who returned a verdict for plaintiff and from judgment entered thereon defendant has appealed.
The negligence charged was a defective condition and alignment of the motor, operation at excessive speed, absence of a speed regulator on the motor and also absence of grabirons or handholds as required by the Federal Safety Appliance Act. We find no evidence tending to show the accident was in any way caused by the absence of either a speed regulator or grabirons; accordingly, the only question for determination is whether there was sufficient evidence of a defective motor or of excessive speed in its operation to warrant the conclusion that these elements, or either of them, caused the car to leave the track and, consequently, was the proximate cause of the accident.
. The judgment is affirmed.