Ardesco Oil Co. v. Gilson

• Decision Date: 03 January 1870
• Citation: 63 Pa. 146
• Parties: The Ardesco Oil Company <I>versus</I> Gilson.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

63 Pa. 146

The Ardesco Oil Company versus Gilson.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

November 5, 1869.

January 3, 1870.

November 5th 1869.

Before THOMPSON, C. J., READ, AGNEW, SHARSWOOD and WILLIAMS, JJ.

Error to the District Court of Allegheny county: No. 29, to October and November Term 1869.

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H. Burgwin, for plaintiffs in error, cited Mob. & Ohio Railroad v. Thomas, 8 Am. Law Reg. 154; Warner v. Erie Railway, Id. 209; Wilson v. Murray, House of Lords Cases, Pt. 3, July 1868, p. 326.

D. W. & A. S. Bell, for defendant in error.

The opinion of the court was delivered, January 3d 1870, by SHARSWOOD, J.

The first four errors assigned are to the answers to the points and to the charge of the learned judge in the court below in this, that, without any, or sufficient evidence, he left it to the jury to determine whether the injury which the plaintiff below had sustained from the explosion of two oil stills in the oil refinery establishment of the defendants had resulted from their negligence.

The defendants were a corporation, and could only act through their officers or agents. It is their officer, having charge of their business, who, for all practical purposes, must be regarded as the corporation itself: Frazier v. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 2 Wright 104. The same rule of liability must be applied to them as to natural persons. The duty which they owe to their servants and employees is the same. What employers owe to their servants and workmen is the exercise of reasonable care and proper diligence in providing them with safe machinery and suitable tools, and in employing with them fit and competent superintendents and fellow-workmen. Not that they warrant the result, nor that extraordinary vigilance is exacted of them. It is nevertheless true, as stated by the learned judge below, in his charge, that what is due care and ordinary diligence will much depend on the kind of business which is carried on, and the sort of material which is handled. The proprietor of a powder-mill must exert more precaution than the master of a blacksmith shop. So, in such an establishment as that carried on by the defendants below — in refining oil from crude petroleum — a material highly inflammable and explosive, we are bound to examine the question of negligence with a regard to this circumstance.

It may be considered as now settled that, if a person employs others, not as servants, but as mechanics, or contractors in an independent business, and they are of good character, if there was no want of due care in choosing them, he incurs no liability for injuries resulting to others from their negligence or want of skill: Painter v. The Mayor of Pittsburg, 10 Wright 213. If I employ a well known and reputable machinist to construct a steam-engine, and it blows up from bad materials or unskilful work, I am not responsible for any injury which may result, whether to my own servant or to a third person. The rule is different if the machine is made according to my own plan, or if I interfere and give directions as to the manner of its construction. The machinist then becomes my servant, and respondeat superior is the rule: Godley v. Hagerty, 8 Harris 387; Carson v. Godley, 2 Casey 111. There is no difference between liability to a stranger and to a servant for a man's own negligence or want of skill; though a master is not responsible for an injury to a servant by the negligence of a fellow-servant, unless he has failed in ordinary care in the employment of the culpable party: Ryan v. The Cumberland Valley Railroad Co., 11 Harris 384; Frazier v. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 2 Wright 104; Hunt v. The Same, 1 P. F. Smith 475; Caldwell v. Brown, 3 Id.

Applying these principles to this case, we think that the learned judge below was entirely right in submitting the question of negligence to the jury. Graber, the machinist, testified that the stills were made according to the plan of Mr. O'Hara,...