250 Pa. 447 | Pa. | 1915
Opinion by
James Dottling, a minor son of the plaintiff, was killed while performing services in the employ of the defendants; his mother sued in trespass, alleging negligence, and recovered a verdict of $2,238.05, which subsequently was reduced to $1,600. Judgment was entered accordingly, and the defendants have appealed, contending: (1) “The negligence which plaintiff imputes to defendants was not the proximate cause of the injury”; (2) “The boy for whose death the plaintiff claims was guilty of contributory negligence”; and (3) “The plaintiff did not submit any sufficient evidence from which a verdict in her favor could be rendered.”
When the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, as it must be, since the verdict was in her favor, these material facts appear: The defendants owned and operated a coke plant; at the time of the accident James Dottling was working at a conveyor used for the purpose of carrying coke ashes from the coke yard up an incline to a boiler house; in performing this work he was obliged to stand upon an insecure plank ten or twelve inches wide and seven or eight feet long at an elevation above the ground, or in another equally unsafe position; the belt of the conveyor was propelled by a revolving drum; at times the belt would slip in such a manner that it would cease to move; when this occurred it was customary for one performing the duties at which Dottling was engaged to use upon the' belt a preparation furnished by the defendants consisting of tar and some other substances; the preparation was customarily applied while the belt was running; Dottling was performing his usual duties, in closé proximity to a series of cog-wheels, which were neither fenced nor guarded as required by the acts of assembly in Pennsylvania, the belt was slipping and he was applying this tar solution, when his hand caught; he was drawn into the cógs and so severely injured that very shortly thereafter he died.
On the last point, the appellants contend that there was no sufficient evidence produced by the plaintiff to show how much it would have cost to maintain her son between the time of his death and the date of his majority, and hence, that the proofs were insufficient to justify or sustain a verdict in her favor. James Dott
Tbe assignments are overruled and tbe judgment is affirmed.