220 Pa. 617 | Pa. | 1908
Opinion by
The error which ran through the whole trial in the court below was failure to give effect to the Act of May 2, 1905, P. L. 352. The case was tried under the rules of law applicable to cases of negligence where master and servant, both being competent to enter into a contract of employment and each presumably capable of appreciating the dangers thereof, are charged with the duty of exercising due care, the master in providing reasonably safe appliances and machinen'-, and the servant of using ordinary care to avoid open and obvious dangers. These rules have no application to the facts of the present case. The boy appellant was born June 6, 1892; was first employed by appellee company in April, 1905 ; and was injured January 27, 1906, being at the time of the injury under fourteen years of age. Section 2 of the act of 1905, provides that no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any establishment to which the provisions of the statute apply, and section 1 requires that “ no minor under sixteen years of age shall be permitted to clean or oil machinery while in motion or to operate, or otherwise have the care or custody of, any elevator or lift.” It seems to be conceded that the place where the boy worked was an establishment within the meaning of the act, and hence the case must be considered in the light of the statute regulations and requirements. That the legislature, under its police power, has the authority to enact such legislation is not an open question in this state. In the recent case of Lenahan v. Pittston Coal Mining Company, 218 Pa. 311, we held that it was within the power of the legislature to fix an age limit below which children should not be employed in dangerous kinds of work, and that an employer who violated the law by en
We do not consider it necessary to consider in detail the numerous assignments of error, because they nearly all relate wholly or in part to the force and effect to be given the act of 1905, and with this fundamental and controlling question now settled, no difficulty will be experienced in the proper
Judgment reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.