248 Pa. 463 | Pa. | 1915
Opinion by
The defendant company is engaged in conducting a large department store in the City of Philadelphia. One Kurtz, the owner of a smaller concern of like general character, located in a four-story building at Marshall street and Girard avenue, in the same city, having been adjudged insolvent, the stock of merchandise belonging to him passed into the hands of a receiver. The receiver after disposing at a bargain sale of a certain portion of the stock of merchandise on hand, on 12th May, 1912, sold what remained excepting the stock of jewelry and toys, to the defendant company in bulk. The goods thus purchased by the defendant consisted of chinaware in the basement, furniture and drygoods on the first floor, carpets and furniture on the second floor and furniture on the third floor of the building. On May 25th, the defendant sent its porters and teams to remove the goods, and until the 27th these men were engaged in removing the goods from the basement and the first and second floors. On the 28th they commenced to remove the goods from the third floor, and it was while so engaged that the accident here complained of occurred. The plaintiff’s husband was a salesman in the furniture department of the defendant’s store, and had been sent to the Kurtz store that day to tag the furniture before
The negligence charged was failure by the defendant company to furnish the plaintiff’s husband with, a reasonably safe and fit place of employment and a reasonably safe and fit appliance with Avhich to work, in that the elevator from which he fell was negligently maintained in a dangerous, unsafe and unfit condition for use in the work to which as an employee he was assigned. The safety of the place to which this employee was assigned is hardly to be questioned. The place was the third floor of an admittedly substantial building.