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196 Pa. 263

Ricks v. Flynn

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided May 21, 1900

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1900-05-21

Appeal, No. 19, Jan. T., 1900, by-defendants, from judgment of C. P. No. 3, Pliila. Co., Dec. T., 1897, No. 417, on verdict for plaintiff in case of William Ricks v. Patrick H. Flynn, Michael Coffey, John M. Sharp and Michael Connoly, trading as P. H. Flynn & Co. Trespass for personal injuries. The facts appear by the opinion of the Supreme Court. Verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $6,240. Defendant appealed.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed · Decided 1900-05-21

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently April 1922

15 state decisions

100190019101920decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Mr. Justice Dean,

¶1dissenting:

¶2In my opinion this judgment is wrong; it is not vindicated by reason or authority. The evidence of plaintiff tended to establish the fact, that Snyder, under whose supervision this part of the work was being done, was there as the representative of and in place of his employers, these defendants. On this evidence, under all the authorities, he was a vice principal and his employers are answerable for his negligence.

¶3Assume that there was some conflict in the evidence, still the question was one of fact to be determined by the jury. If the evidence of plaintiff be believed, and the jury in this case did believe it, this man Snyder was neither fitted by temper nor discretion for such a responsible position; one where the lives and limbs of workmen depended on prudent management; by his gross mismanagement and recklessness the plaintiff was seriously injured. Why should not those who placed such a man in such a position, with all the unchecked powers of an employer be held responsible for his negligence ? He was no more a fellow-workman of plaintiff than the employers themselves. The tendency to exempt employers from just responsibility for the negligence of supervisors and bosses to whom they entrust such grave duties is in my opinion too pronounced, and will lead to consequences, which, if not now clearly foreseen, can, with very reasonable certainty, be conjectured. I dissent from the judgment.

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