Ford v. Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co.
Ford v. Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The injuries for which plaintiff sought to recover damages were sustained by him within a colliery owned and operated by the defendant company in which plaintiff was engaged as an employee, and was at the time in the line of his employment. The accident occurred at the bottom of what is known as No. 2 slope in the mine at a point where there are two tracks for the mine cars, one on which loaded cars are carried by gravity to the hoist at the “dish” or bottom of the slope whence they are carried to the surface and are there unloaded; the other was used for the return of the empty cars to the gangway where they were reloaded and returned to the hoist over their own proper track. These tracks crossed at the turnout which was a short distance above the place of accident, but at this point in the tunnel they were nearly parallel and but a few feet apart. On the side of the empty track a very short distance from the turnout, there was what is called a safety hole where the mules which had drawn the loaded cars from the mines to the gravity road were kept; a few feet beyond, on the other side, in a space prepared for it, there was a pumping station. It was on the loaded car track just in front of the safety hole that the accident occurred. It is admitted that the turnout at this point was unlighted, dark, and that those therein employed had no means of seeing about them except the ordinary miner’s lamp with which they were provided. The inadequacy of these to protect one from danger under such circumstances as were here present was not seriously controverted. It does not appear that the plaintiff was employed as a miner. His place
The refusal of the motion for judgment non obstante is the first and principal assignment of error. Except as the court would have been warranted in giving binding instructions for the defendant, it could not have been error to refuse the motion. The negligence complained of is
The same may be said with respect to the second question : It is quite immaterial that the learned trial judge placed larger emphasis on this feature of the case than we think it required; but no exception was taken to his charge on this subject and we perceive no distinct error in what he said. The third act of negligence complained of was in not providing some signal or warning to be given to anyone on the line of the gravity track of the approach of the loaded cars on their way to the hoist. The man whose duty it was to place the loaded cars on the gravity testified that the only alarm he was accustomed to give on the starting of the cars was to call out to the chain thrower at the bottom, if he was there, that he had no other instruction in regard to it, and no signal lights were used on the cars. The plaintiff himself testified that he neither saw nor heard the loaded cars approach and could not hear their approach because of the noise made by the pump then in operation close by. It is quite enough to say that here again the question of defendant’s
Another specification of error relates to so much of the court’s charge as instructs with respect to the capitalization of future payments. The instruction was as follows : “The rule that future payments are to be capitalized, that only the present worth of future payments, may be awarded, does not apply to pain and suffering and inconvenience that you find the plaintiff might suffer by reason of the injury.” In the very recent case of Bostwick v. Pittsburgh R. R. Co., 255 Pa. 387, this court speaking through Mr. Justice Walling said: “In the absence of precedent, we will not extend the rule which requires the court to instruct juries to allow only the present worth of future damages so as to include the element of pain, suffering and inconvenience.” This was ample authority for the instruction complained of. Still another assignment complains of the action of the court in
All the assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Negligence — Master and servant — Mines and mining — General labor in mine — Contributory negligence — Case for jury. In an action against a coal mining company to recover damages for personal injuries to a general laborer in the mine, the question of the defendant’s negligence and plaintiff’s contributory negligence arb for the jury where the evidence tends to show that plaintiff by direction of the foreman went into an unlighted and dark tunnel in the mine to procure some wire from a place described as a safety hole; that he was unfamiliar with the part of the mine, and was not warned as to any danger; that at the point in the tunnel ■where the accident occurred there were two parallel tracks on one of which cars were carried down by gravity, and on the other the empty cars were run into the mine; that as plaintiff was standing with one foot on the empty car track in front of the safety hole he became aware of some cars approaching him on that track only six or eight feet away; that he fell back on the other track and was struck by a draught of loaded ears which threw him against other loaded ears at rest on the same track; that the draught cars approached without signal or lights; and that plaintiff could not hear them because of the operations of a pump close by. In such a case the legal requirements in connection with surface railroad crossings do not apply. Negligence — Damages—Present worth rule — Pain and suffering. In negligence cases involving personal injuries, the rule which requires the court to instruct the jury to allow the present worth of future damages, does not apply in awarding compensation for pain, suffering and inconvenience. Negligence — Excessive verdict — New trial — Discretion of court. A judgment for plaintiff in an accident case will not be reversed because of the refusal of a new trial, where it is averred that the verdict of $11,686 was excessive, if no abuse of discretion is shown on the part of the lower court.