Van Duzer v. Commonwealth Telephone Co.
Van Duzer v. Commonwealth Telephone Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff here sought to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have resulted from the negligence of the defendant company. The case has been tried twice. The first trial resulted in a judgment of compulsory nonsuit, which the court refused to take off. Upon appeal to this court (VanDuzer v. Telephone Co., 236 Pa. 538) the judgment was reversed with a procedendo. It appears from the evidence at the last trial that plaintiff was employed under the authority of the defendant’s division superintendent to assist in the work of building telephone lines. He was engaged to do general work and probably a little climbing. He objected somewhat to the climbing as he was without experience in that work. He was told that the company would furnish tools and belts, and whatever was needed to work with, and would keep everything in repair. He was furuished by Mr. Irwin, superintendent of the work, with the harness which he used in climbing, and which proved to be defective. A witness, Charles Eichsted, testified that about two weeks before the accident to plaintiff, he called the attention of Irwin, the superin
We find nothing in the evidence in this record, to change our conclusion, reached in the former appeal, that the questions 6f the negligence of the defendant, and the contributory negligence of the plaintiff, were not properly to be disposed of by the court as questions of law, but were for the consideration of the jury, under proper instructions. No complaint is made of the manner in which these questions were submitted. The only contention here is that the trial judge should have taken these questions from the jury, and should have given binding instructions in favor of the defendant. This would have been in plain disregard of the decision of this court in this case upon the former appeal.
The assignments of error are overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.