163 Pa. 310 | Pa. | 1894
Opinion by
Is there any evidence in this case which authorizes an'inference that the plaintiff’s injury was caused by the defendant’s negligence ? It is alleged in the plaintiff’s statement that the defendants negligently left heavy bags of wool suspended from the hoisting apparatus on the outside of the building, and that .the bags became detached from it and fell upon the .plaintiff while he was lawfully passing out of the doorway below them. Issue was joined on this allegation and under the pleadings the inquiry on the trial should have been confined to it. The evidence in support of the plaintiff’s side of the issue thus made was meagre. It consisted of his own testimony, corroborated somewhat by two of his witnesses, to the effect that the hoisting apparatus was not running when the bags fell from it. The jury were instructed in substance that they might infer from this testimony that the defendants allowed the bags to
The special finding furnished no basis for a conclusion that the bags fell in consequence of an act or omission of the defendants. The jury were asked to find specially “whether the goods remained lifted up toward the room of the defendants for ten or fifteen minutes, or for any other unreasonable length of time,” but they did not do so. ' In the special finding, considered by itself, there was nothing to convict the defendants of negligence in the affair under investigation. It was consistent’ with the exercise of due care and diligence by them in transferring the wool from the lift to the part of the building they occupied. We may therefore reasonably conclude that the verdict was the result of a belief by the jury that Corrigan improperly fastened the bags to the hoist and that the defendants were chargeable with the consequences of his carelessness. If the jury were satisfied that he was negligent, and that the plaintiff was not, it was their plain duty under the instructions they received from the court to render the verdict they did. But were the defendants liable for an injury inflicted by the negligence of Corrigan in fastening the bags to the hoist ? He was not in their service at the time. In unloading the bags from the wagon he represented his employers, for whose acts the defendants were nowise responsible. While the bags were in the wagon before they were attached to the lift they were in
It was essential to the maintenance of this action that the plaintiff should prove an act or omission on the part of the defendants which constituted negligence, and that it was the proximate cause of the injury he received. We are of the opinion after a careful consideration of the evidence submitted by him that he failed to do so. The evidence submitted did not warrant an inference that the bags were suspended from the lift an unreasonable time after they were raised to the level of the third floor, or that there was any negligence on the part of the defendants to which the injury the plaintiff received was properly chargeable. The first, second, third and fourth specifications of error are sustained.
Judgment reversed.