Whitman v. Boston Elevated Railway Co.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for injuries caused by the plaintiff being thrown out of his wagon which came in collision with a car of the defendant as the plaintiff was driving across Washington Street from Cherry Street to Davis Street in Boston.
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Tort for injuries caused by the plaintiff being thrown out of his wagon which came in collision with a car of the defendant as the plaintiff was driving across Washington Street from Cherry Street to Davis Street in Boston. Writ dated July 14, 1898. At the trial in the Superior Court before Hardy, J., on the question of the plaintiff’s due care, the plaintiff’s counsel asked the plaintiff “Now, did you form a judgment at the time as to whether there was a chance for you to cross the track ? ” He answered “ Yes, sir.” His counsel then asked him “ Now, what was that judgment?” The plaintiff’s…
1Opinion of the CourtHolmes, C. J.
Whether the plaintiff was negligent or not did not depend upon the plaintiff’s judgment but upon that of the jury, whose duty it was to decide whether he showed the caution which a man of ordinary prudence would observe. *139Therefore from that point of view the excluded evidence was immaterial. Commonwealth v. Pierce, 138 Mass. 165, 176.
The question excluded did not seek to bring out a portion of the surrounding facts which could not be stated adequately in detail and which therefore needed to be summed up in some general phrase, as often happens. The external situation sufficiently appeared.
Agai…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Commonwealth v. PierceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1884
- Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. MillerCourt of Appeals of Texas · 1894
3Cited by12 opinions
- Hennessey v. TaylorMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1905
- Jeddrey v. Boston & Northern Street Railway Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1908
- Tinney v. CrosbySupreme Court of Vermont · 1941
- Carney v. Concord Street RailwaySupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1903
- Blanchette v. Union Street Railway Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1924
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