109 Pa. 296 | Pa. | 1885
delivered the opinion of the court
Certain questions which arose in the court below have been settled by the verdict; among others, the insufficiency of the boiler for the work it was intended to do, and the fact that Leslie and Mason did not by any act of commission or omission contribute to the accident. There were also certain legal principles recognized by the court below, about which there was and can be no serious dispute, as that the burthen of proof was on the plaintiffs to show negligence on part of the defendant or its agents; that there could be no recovery if the accident resulted from the negligence of a fellow-servant; that this master was bound to furnish safe appliances and tools with which its servants might accomplish the work they were required to do, and that it could not bo held liable if competent and careful mechanics were employed in the manufacture and repair of the boiler. In all these particulars the court properly instructed the jury, and they would seem to cover the entire case. Nevertheless we have some assignments of error founded on exceptions taken to the rulings of that court.
We are told that it was a mistake for the learned judge to affirm the plaintiffs’ first point because of its containing the word “adequately” as follows; “that the defendant company was bound to keep and maintain the engine‘Wyoming’in such a condition as to be reasonably and adequately safe for Mason the deceased, to be upon and use.” But as, according to Webster, ‘adequacy’ means simply ‘sufficiency; sufficiency for a particular purpose,’ we cannot see where in this instruction there was error. The boiler ought to have been sufficient for the purpose intended, and if it was not the company was responsible for the absence of such sufficiency; indeed, in this alone the neglect, if any, is found. But the court below was asked by the counsel for the defendant to say that the workmen in the shop at Sayre, who repaired the boiler, were, under the evidence, fellow-servants with Leslie and Mason, and that there could be no recovery for the negligence of such co-employees. To this the court made answer as follows : “That is denied. It is true that Mr. Weaver testified that he had under him Slowey, who made these repairs, and he had also under him the engineer and fireman of the gravel train;
Are we to strain a point against these laborers and raise a theoretical connection between them and the boiler maker in order to shift the responsibility from the master to the servant ? Neither on disposition nor authority can we approve a proposition so clearly wrong as this. Says Dr. Wharton in his work on Negligence, sec. 232: “a master is bound when employing a servant to provide for the servant a safe working place and machinery. It may be that the person by whom buildings and machinery are constructed, are servants of the common master, but this does not relieve him from his obligation to make buildings and machinery adequate for working
What has been above stated accords, we think, with the general tenor of our own authorities, and among others O’Donnell v. The Railroad Company, 9 P. F. S., 241. We must, therefore, refuse to sustain the exceptions of the plaintiffs in error, and approve the rulings of the court below.
Judgment in each case affirmed.