240 Pa. 292 | Pa. | 1913
Opinion by
On this appeal from the refusal to take off a judgment of nonsuit the question for our determination is whether, on her case as. the plaintiff presented it in the court below, she was improperly denied the right to have a jury pass upon her claim for compensation from the defendant company for the death of her husband. At the. time of his death, and for five years prior thereto, he had been one of the employees in its mill, serving — according to the testimony of his wife — as “a man of all work.” Other witnesses testified that he took trucks up and down the elevator to the different departments in the establishment, distributed yarns and warps throughout the weaving department, bringing them down-stairs from the winding room, and did other things about the mill. In performing his work he operated an elevator. His duties took him to the various departments and rooms of the mill, including one known as the “burling room.” In this room there was a revolving shaft about ten feet from the floor, and it furnished the power to a counter shaft by which the elevator was .run. On a
The imperative words of the Act of 1905 are: “The owner or person in charge of an establishment where machinery is used shall provide belt-shifters or other mechanical contrivances for the purpose of throwing on or off belts or pulleys......All vats, pans, saws, planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set screws, grindstones,
In the case before us it is first to be remembered that there was no belt shifter, as required by the statute, to throw back a belt that had slipped from the pulley on the shaft by which the elevator was operated, and. the defendant company, therefore, knew that when a belt so slipped some one in its employ would have to ascend