Durst v. Bromley Bros. Carpet Co.
| Decision Date | 11 April 1904 |
| Docket Number | 258 |
| Citation | 208 Pa. 573,57 A. 986 |
| Parties | Durst, Appellant, v. Bromley Brothers Carpet Company |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Submitted January 14, 1904
Appeal, 258, Jan. T., 1903, by plaintiff from order of C.P. No. 5, Phila. Co., March T., 1902, No. 1668, refusing to take off non-suit in case of Theresa Durst v. Bromley Brothers Carpet Company. Affirmed.
Trespass to recover damages for death of plaintiff's husband. Before RALSTON, J.
At the trial it appeared that on February 26, 1902, the deceased who was head scourer in defendants' carpet mill, was employed after hours in helping to run a line of hot water pipe along the ceiling of the room in which he worked. He placed a plank over a vat of boiling caustic soda, and while standing on the plank the pipe slipped out of his hands, and he was knocked into the vat and killed. The court entered a compulsory non-suit which it subsequently refused to take off. Plaintiff appealed.
Error assigned was in refusing to take off non-suit.
Judgment affirmed.
Walter Stradling and Henry J. Scott, for appellant.
Morton Z. Paul, for appellee.
Before MITCHELL, C.J., DEAN, FELL, BROWN, MESTREZAT, POTTER and THOMPSON, JJ.
The plaintiff's husband voluntarily undertook to help in a work of manifest danger. That alone would bar a recovery. But in addition to this, it appears that the primary cause of the accident was the slipping of the pipe out of the deceased's hands, thus throwing the weight on him and knocking him into the vat. If this was not the result of his own carelessness in handling the pipe, it certainly did not show any negligence on the part of defendants.
Judgment affirmed.
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