251 Pa. 593 | Pa. | 1916
Opinion by
The appellant company owns and operates a plant for the manufacture of chemicals. In the course of the construction and operation of its plant, it received from time to time on hoard cars certain heavy pieces of machinery known as “basket-tanks,” varying in weight from one to two tons each. These cars were open gondola cars, and were delivered on the siding of the appellant company on its own premises. The work of unloading was done by the appellant. The cars employed, though open, had heavy frame work at the sides and ends extending some three or four feet above the floor, the ends being detachable, but not so the sides. It was impracticable, therefore, to unload the baskets from the side of the car except as they were first hoisted over and above this frame work, a condition which would seem to require the employment of a crane or other similar device. The frame work at either end being removable, it was practicable by removal to skid the baskets out from the body of the car through the end to a platform, and lower them from there to the ground. A temporary platform for this purpose was used, constructed with two heavy beams resting at one end on the bumper of the car carrying the freight to be' unloaded, and the other end resting on the bumper of a car placed at a distance of twelve feet, thus bridging over the intervening space.
In his final instructions to the jury the learned trial judge said, “Now all of this that I have said to you depends upon whether you find that the want of a crane was the proximate cause of this injury; of course, if this man had not been working there at all he would not have been injured; and I will submit to you the question whether or not you find that the fact that there was not a crane furnished, and that they were doing it in this way, was the proximate and direct cause of this injury, under the circumstances; this injury having taken place, not by the falling of the object that they were moving, but by the falling of this door. That is a question for you to determine; whether you believe the falling of this door on him was the proximate result of the absence of a crane. If it was, and there is no assumption of risk or contributory negligence, then the plaintiff is entitled to recover, otherwise he is not.”
It is thus made very clearly to appear that there was but a single allegation of negligence in the case, namely, failure to use a crane for the unloading of the baskets; and the case was submitted to the jury to find whether such failure was the proximate cause of .the accident. The instruction of the court begged the very question in issue. It assumed that the adoption by the defendant of another method of unloading the basket-tanks than by means of a crane was an act of negligence, and submitted to the jury the single question whether this was the proximate cause of the defendant’s injury. Except as this was a negligent act, under no circumstances could it have been a proximate cause. Inquiry for proximate cause in such cases never extends further back than to some original negligent act which set in motion the chain of circumstances leading up to the injury. However remote this is, it may, notwithstanding, be a proximate cause; but the first essential is, whether near or remote, that it must be a negligent act; for ex
“If the machinery be of ordinary character, and such as can with reasonable care be used without danger to the employee, it is all that can be required from the employer; this is the limit of his responsibility and the sum total of his duty.”
Even were it admitted that the evidence was sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the crane method was the safer, it comes far short of showing a disregard of any duty on part of the defendant in not adopting it. A plaintiff can only prove negligence in such case as this by showing that the appliance used was not reasonably