Hartenstine v. United Telephone & Telegraph Co.
Hartenstine v. United Telephone & Telegraph Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
At the time the husband of appellant was killed by an electric shock he was helping to string wires for the appellee. He was employed as a reelman. A wire from his reel and that from one alongside of it were fastened to a running board to which a rope was attached. This running board kept the wires apart and prevented their twisting as they were carried over the arms of the poles. When a pole was reached the lineman carried the rope up to a cross-arm and threw it down on the other side. A man on the ground would then carry the rope forward, pulling the wires to the cross-arm, and when the running board reached a cross-arm a man on the pole would fasten it on the pegs, so as to keep the wires back of him tight. Slack wires in the rear might have sagged and come in contact with heavily charged electric wires beneath them. The wires of the appellee were being strung six or eight feet above heavily charged wires belonging to another company — The Pottstown Light, Heat and Power Company. These lower wires were on some of appellee’s poles. Before the deceased and his fellow workmen began to string the wires they were all instructed to keep them taut, to prevent their touching the highly charged wires beneath them. The principal witness for the plaintiff so testifies. According to the finding of the jury, the wires of the appellee, which were being reeled off, were allowed to sag at a certain point and touch the dangerous
"When pole “97” was reached the running board was not kept at its cross-arm and from that point pulled over the pole “ 141 ” of The Pottstown Electric light Company, -which had to be crossed or passed to reach pole “ 96 ” of the appellee. After the running board had passed over the cross-arm of pole “ 97 ” it was pulled down to the ground and fastened to a fence at some point between that pole and pole “ 141 ” of the other company. The rope was then taken up pole “ 141,” thrown down and taken up pole “ 96,” and thence thrown down. Dellar, one of the linemen, stood at the running board by the fence, loosened it and called to Kulp, another employee, who had the rope to run. As the latter ran and pulled the rope the running board flew up into the air and the wire in the rear slacked, causing a contact, according to plaintiff’s theory, with the electric light wires, and carrying to the reel the current which killed appellant’s husband. All of the experts and experienced workmen on both sides testified that the running board should not have been carried to the ground and fastened to the fence, but been pulled directly from pole to pole, and that the method which was used by the fellow workmen of the deceased in stringing the wires from pole “ 97 ” to pole “ 96 ” was improper and very dangerous.
On the trial the appellant rested her case on the insufficiency of the rope supplied by the appellee, her contention being that its shortness compelled the workmen to adopt the method of stringing the wires from pole “ 97 ” to “ 96.” The length of the rope, as proved by plaintiff, was 150 feet, and the distance from pole “97” to “ 96” having been 137 feet, the rope was not of sufficient length to extend from a cross-arm on the first-named pole over to one on the other, and thence down to the ground; but the learned trial judge, in his opinion directing
Even if the rope used by the workmen was too short to enable them to string the wires in a safe and proper manner, the appellee was not responsible for its shortness, for in the storehouse at Phoenix ville from which Massey, the foreman, took it, there was more than 300 feet of rope. If the piece which he took from the sufficient supply furnished by the company was too short, it was his fault that the workmen did not have a piece of sufficient length; and under all of our cases he was but a fellow workman of the deceased. The company had furnished all the rope that was needed to so string the wires as to prevent their sagging, and the workmen had access to it. If one of them took too little, when he could have taken enough, the company is not to be blamed for not having supplied enough. In Prescott v. Ball Engine Co., 176 Pa. 459, we said: “ If good ropes were in stock, and a poor one was used because of haste, or carelessness, or mistaken judgment, it was not the fault of the rigger as vice principal, but of the workmen themselves; and the injury suffered because of the use of the unsuitable rope could not give the injured person a
The assignments of error are all overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Hartenstine v. United Telephone & Telegraph Company
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- Negligence — Electric law — Telephone and telegraph companies — Master and servant — Fellow servant. In an action against a telephone and telegraph company to recover damages for death of plaintiff’s husband, a judgment for defendant will be sustained where the evidence shows that the deceased at the ’ time of his death was employed by the defendant in stringing wires, that his death was caused by a wire which he was stringing coming in contact with a heavily charged wire of an electric light company, and that the accident was caused either by the negligence of follow workmen in manipulating the wire with a rope supplied by the defendant which was apparently long enough for the purpose, or by the failure of the foreman of the gang to take from the defendant’s supply store, where a sufficient supply of rope was kept, an amount thereof sufficient for the work in hand. Prescott v. Ball Engine Co., 176 Pa. 459, followed. Negligence — Electric law — Telephone and telegraph companies — Rubber gloves — Failure to provide. The failure of a telephone and telegraph company to supply rubber gloves to an employee cannot be set up as negligence upon its part where it appears that the proximate cause of the employee’s death was the negligence of a fellow servant.