Thomas v. Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Co.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Thomas v. Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Co., 191 Pa. 361 (Pa. 1899)
43 A. 215; 1899 Pa. LEXIS 825
Fell, Gbeen, McCollum, Mitchell, Stebbett

Thomas v. Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Co.

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam,

This ease was ably and correctly tried before the learned president of the twentieth judicial district. In his opinion denying the motion for a new trial the salient facts of the case, together with the principles involved, etc., are so fully set forth that little, if anything, can be profitably added in vindication of his rulings.

Plaintiffs’ request for instructions, recited in the first specification, was rightly refused, because there was no sufficient evidence of the facts of which it is predicated to justify submission of the questions involved to the jury.

The undisputed evidence was that, under his contract with the defendant company for grading the track and laying the rails, Cyrus N. Stark was an independent contractor and, as such, had a right to do the work and direct its performance in such manner as he chose, independently of any right of the defendant railway company. The latter had no other control over the work than to approve or disapprove of it when completed by Stark; and, inasmuch as the defendant company had no right to interfere with him or his employees, the negligence of the latter could not be imputed to it. It therefore follows *369that there was no error in the instructions recited in the second specification.

For same reasons, there was no error in directing the jury to find for defendant, as complained of in the third and last specification.

Without further comment, the judgment is affirmed on the opinion of the learned judge who specially presided at the trial.

Reference

Full Case Name
Harry L. Thomas and Annie J. Thomas, his wife v. The Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Company
Cited By
9 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Negligence—Independent cmttractor—Street railway. A street railway company which lets out the construction of its road to an independent contractor, and reserves no other control over the work than to approve or disapprove of it when completed, is not liable for personal injuries caused by the negligence of an employee of the contractor. Under contract of S. with defendant to grade its track and lay the rails, providing that defendant’s engineer should fix the grades and alignment of the road, establish the amount of work done each month, approve the work when completed, and employ workmen in case S. failed to provide sufficient force to accomplish the work within the specified time, and authorizing him to declare the contract forfeited “ for noncompliance with his directions in regard to the manner of constructing it,” there being no reservation of control over the employees of 8., or the means to be employed by him to do the work, he is an independent contractor; so that defendant is not liable for injury to plaintiff from the upturning of a plank, being part of a temporary crossing over the rails, caused by the negligence of one of the employees of S. in driving a cart against it.