Court Opinion

ID: 9449044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:53:45.764912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:39.916693
License: Public Domain

BIGGS, Chief Judge
(concurring).
The majority opinion has left little for me to say but I think nonetheless that I should explain my position. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Code, Pa. Stat.Ann. tit. 66, Section 1102(10), defines “ ‘Facilities’ ” as “the plant and equipment of a public utility, including * * * any and all means and instru-mentalities in any manner * * * used * * * for, by, or in connection with” its business.
The evidence was sufficient to justify the jury in finding that the Railroad Company was employing the sidetrack complex, including the wooden ladders of the bins, in particular the ladder attached to the side of Bin 56, in connection with its business as a common-carrier public utility. The record shows that in 1955 the Railroad Company inspected the bins and made extensive repairs to the sidetrack complex. In making this statement I am aware that the Reading Company points out that the defective ladder that apparently caused Dickerson’s death was attached to the wooden side of the bin and not the side of the concrete trestle which alone supported the sidetrack. Nonetheless it must be concluded that the complex of the siding and its coal dispensing bins, including the ladders, were integral parts of the facilities used by Reading in its service as a public utility for the purpose of making coal available to United Eastern Coal Sales Corporation or its agency, the Adam Coal Company, a division of United, and Reading’s other lessees. In sort, individual facilities of the siding complex, such as the wooden ladder of Bin 56, cannot be divorced properly from the whole complex. It follows that Section 1171 of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Code which requires every public utility to furnish and maintain safe facilities and to make such repairs “as shall be necessary * * * for * * * the safety of its patrons, employees and the public”, is applicable.
Reading lays great emphasis on the provision of Section 1500 of the Public Utility Code providing that the Code shall not be held or construed to alter or repeal the theretofore established rules covering liability of public utilities for negligence. It must be conceded that this presents a serious obstacle to the point of view asserted in this opinion. In the former concurring opinion, filed on May 8, 1962, now withdrawn, I stated that I could not perceive how Dickerson could be said to be a member of the “public” as that word is employed in Section 1171 of the Public Utility Code, citing Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. v. Pennsylvania Pub. Util. Comm’n, 154 Pa.Super. 340, 344-346, 35 A.2d 535, 537-538 (1944), and having had in mind the strictures of Section 1500. But the case at bar is a diversity case and not only is the statute law of Pennsylvania applicable but the inter*846pretations of that law by the higher courts of the Commonwealth must be heeded by us as well.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania in West Penn Power Co. v. Pennsylvania Pub. Util. Comm’n, 199 Pa.Super. 25, 32, 184 A.2d 143, 146 (1962), stated the following: “[The appellant power company’s] third and final contention is that the Commission also erred in finding that the proposed right-of-way will create a situation involving hazard to the public. In Lower Chichester Township v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 180 Pa.Super. 503, 119 A.2d 674, we made the following pertinent statement: ‘The public for whose convenience, accommodation, safety, and protection the Public Utility Law is concerned does not consist solely of persons served by the utility, but also includes persons generally who may come into contact with the utility’s facilities’. We cannot agree with appellant’s argument that public safety is not involved in the instant case. There is an abundance of testimony in the present record to support the conclusion that persons lawfully using the Simmons property would constantly be exposed to the hazard created by the proposed line. We are of the opinion that such persons are members of the public within the meaning of the statute.”
An examination of the facts in the cited case shows that the intervenors, the Simmonses, owned a farm in Pennsylvania, and operated it with the aid of an irrigation system which by reason of unavoidable breakage, might project water as high as one hundred feet into the air, bringing a stream of water or a section of pipe into contact with the transmission conductors with the power of the West Penn Power Company, which might cause “any person in physical contact with the piping of the irrigation system” to “suffer injury or death by electrical shock.” West Penn Power Co. v. Pennsylvania Pub. Util. Comm’n, supra 199 Pa. at 29-30, 184 A.2d at 145. It is my conclusion that Judge Wright deemed not only the Simmonses themselves but also intended their employees to be included as members of the “public” within the ambit of the Public Utility Act. Whatever may be said as to the strength of the logic advanced by Reading based on Section 1500, and it is strong, I think it cannot be denied that a very apt analogy is presented between the legal position of an employee of the Simmonses vis-a-vis West Penn and Dickerson, an employee of United Eastern, vis-a-vis Reading. I therefore am of the view that Dickerson was entitled to recover from Reading for there is sufficient evidence to support a charge of negligence on the part of Reading.
I concur in the view also expressed in the majority opinion that Reading is entitled under the indemnification clause of the lease to indemnification as indicated.