Bertolino v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co.

Headnote

Bertolino v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co., 180 App. Div. 925 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered November 24, 1917, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict. The action was brought under the Anthracite Mining Laws of the state of Pennsylvania and also under the Employers’ Liability Act of that state to recover damages for personal injuries claimed to have been sustained by the plaintiff, an employee, through the negligence of the defendant in a coal mine of the defendant known as the Westmoreland Colliery at Wyoming, in the state of Pennsylvania.

The complaint alleged that while the plaintiff was engaged in blasting coal, explosive gases which had accumulated without his knowledge suddenly ignited and exploded, whereupon a charge of gunpowder or dynamite which plaintiff was loading and preparing was exploded and discharged, as a result of which explosion and conflagration of gases the plaintiff was injured. The answer was in effect a general denial and in addition there were set forth four separate defenses, one of contributory negligence in the ordinary form, one of a general release and the other two based upon certain provisions of the Anthracite Mining Laws of the state of Pennsylvania.