McMennimen v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co.
McMennimen v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
In this action of trespass, the plaintiff sought to recover damages for the death of her husband, charging it to negligence for which the defendant was responsible. From the opinion of the court below we gather the facts as follows: The husband of the plaintiff was employed at Packer No. 4 colliery of the Lehigh Yalley Coal Company. , On the day of the accident he was engaged in helping to replace upon the track of an inclined plane, a coal car which had become derailed. Small cars were used to convey the coal to the breaker, being hoisted up an outside plane by an endless chain on which were a series of hooks slightly curved at the end, which fastened behind the front axle of the cars. Safety catches were provided, the first one' being some twenty-one feet up the plane, with a triple safety catch at
Upon the trial, at the close of plaintiff’s evidence, a compulsory nonsuit was entered, and, from the refusal of the court to take it off, plaintiff has appealed. Her counsel contend that the track boss, McIntyre, as the representative of defendant, “was in charge of, directing and superintending the work of replacing the car upon the track; and that he was negligent in not securing the car in a reasonably safe manner so that if the chain hook slipped, the car would not plunge back down the plane.” It appears from the evidence that there was a chain at the head house which the men might have used if they had seen proper to do so.. But plaintiff’s witness, O’Donnell, testified that the men frequently put carsi on the track in the way they were attempting in the present instance. ¡Sometimes they used the chain and levers. There was no evidence that the method now in ques
There was no evidence to support the averment that the hook slipped from the.axle because it had become worn. On the contrary, plaintiff’s witness, O’Boyle, testified that he could not explain how the hook happened to slip out and let the car run back. The attempt to replace the car upon the track was made in an ordinary way, and the slipping of the hook seems to have been an accident which no one was bound to foresee. Whatever danger may have attended the effort was obvious to plaintiff’s husband. He whs a skilled mechanic, he was familiar with the incline, and it was part of his duty to inspect it daily and to keep it in repair. He could see the other car standing a few feet away, with its bumper extending over the safety catch. He seems to have chosen his own position at the side and near the end of the car. The track boss, McIntyre, was not charged with committing any negligent act while he was cooperating with the other men in attempting to get the car back upon the track. He was charged with adopting an unsafe method of doing the work, but the evidence does not sustain the charge. Whether McIntyre be regarded as a vice-principal or not, is unimportant. The evidence fails to establish any specific act of negligence on the part of either McIntyre or the defendant company to
The motion to take off the nonsuit was properly refused, and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- McMennimen v. Lehigh Valley Coal Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Negligence — Master and servant — Vice-principal—Obvious danger — Assumption of rish — Proof of negligence — Nonsuit. 1. Where the danger which attends an employee’s operation is obvious, he assumes the risk. 2. Where the evidence fails to establish a specific act of negligence on the part of a track boss to which the injury can be attributed, the question whether or not the track boss was a vice-principal is unimportant. 3. In an action by a widow against her deceased husband’s employer to recover damages for the death of the husband, a nonsuit was properly entered where it appeared that the decedent was a skilled mechanic employed by defendant about an inclined plane by which cars were'elevated from the pit of a mine to the breaker; that on the day of the accident a car on such incline became derailed and decedent and ether workmen under the direction of a track boss attempted to replace it; that the car, at the suggestion of some of the workmen was moved up the incline and there snubbed upon a hook intended to hold cars, there being another car, standing on the incline below it; that in the effort to put the car on the track the hook slipped for some unexplained reason and the car rolled back and crushed decedent against the car below; and where it further appeared that there was available proper equipment to hold the car safely in place, and that the car below could have been removed to a safe distance if this had been deemed necessary, but that the method pursued was customary in such eases, and it did not appear that it was unsafe.