Barney v. City of Lowell
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for the crushing of the plaintiff’s foot by the wheel of a cart belonging to the defendants and managed by a teamster employed by them.
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Tort for the crushing of the plaintiff’s foot by the wheel of a cart belonging to the defendants and managed by a teamster employed by them. At the trial before Gray, J., there was evidence that the plaintiff, a child sixteen months old, was lying upon his breast on the sidewalk of a public street in Lowell in front of his parents’ house, when, for want of due care and guidance by the teamster, a cart drawn by two horses was turned by them from the carriageway so far that one of the wheels ran into the gutter and crushed the plaintiff’s foot which was projecting over the curbstone; that the…
1Opinion of the CourtFoster, J.
This court has already decided that a municipal corporation is not liable in damages for an injury sustained by the carelessness of a laborer employed by a highway surveyor in repairing a highway. In the case adjudged, the laborer carelessly drove a horse and cart so that they came into collision with the plaintiff. Walcott v. Swampscott, 1 Allen, 101. In the case at bar, the negligence imputed to the driver consisted in walking too far behind his horses and leaving them without due care and guidance while he was engaged in conversation.
The principle established by the authorities is, that…
2Cited by47 opinions
- Fisher v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- City of Wooster v. ArbenzOhio Supreme Court · 1927
- City of Detroit v. BlackebyMichigan Supreme Court · 1870
- Haskell v. City of New BedfordMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
- Tindley v. City of SalemMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1884
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