Court Opinion

ID: 9694327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:37:35.794584+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:59.565381
License: Public Domain

FORD ELLIOTT, Judge,
concurring.
I join in the majority’s reasoning in all respects except one. I cannot join in the portion of the majority’s reasoning which would hold that:
In the case before us, Mr. Jara was required as part of his employment, to perform maintenance work on the convey[o]r. To suggest that Mr. Jara was required to choose between performing his duties or use the defective product would permit Appellant, by its own wrong, to deny Mr. Jara the right and privilege of his employment. Therefore, he could not voluntarily assume the risk as Appellant suggests. Where an employee, in doing a job, is required to use equipment as furnished by the employer, this defense is unavailable. An employee who is required to use certain equipment in the course of his employment and who uses that equipment as directed by the employer has no choice in encountering a risk inherent in that equipment. Therefore, although the trial court charged on the doctrine of assumption of the risk, it was error to do so.[Footnote]
[Footnote] The conclusion we reach today negates our need to discuss the fact that Appellant has failed to introduce evidence of Mr. Jara's voluntariness in encountering the risk. This is part of Appellant’s burden of proof in seeking to raise this affirmative defense.
Majority opinion at 795.
My research has found no authority to support such a broad rule1 and the parties *797have not briefed or argued this issue. Rather, I believe the trial court properly instructed the jury on assumption of the risk, and therefore, appellant’s argument that a different instruction was required must fail.

. While it is true that in Long v. Norriton Hydraulics, Inc., 443 Pa.Super. 532, 662 A.2d 1089 (1995), appeal denied, 544 Pa. 611, 674 A.2d 1074 (1996), this court posed the question wheth*797er a risk can be faced voluntarily where it is a part of the job an employee must perform, the case was not decided on this basis and no authority is otherwise cited. The court simply found that summary judgment was inappropriate because the issue of the voluntariness of the risk and the plaintiff’s knowledge of the risk were for the jury.