Carroll v. Metropolitan Coal Co.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for personal injuries from being thrown into the hold of the barge Lone Star while she was discharging coal at the defendant’s wharf in Chelsea on the morning of April 28, 1900, owing to the pulling out of a rung of an iron ladder which the plaintiff was attempting to descend, with one count at common law and another under the employers’ liability act.
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Tort for personal injuries from being thrown into the hold of the barge Lone Star while she was discharging coal at the defendant’s wharf in Chelsea on the morning of April 28, 1900, owing to the pulling out of a rung of an iron ladder which the plaintiff was attempting to descend, with one count at common law and another under the employers’ liability act. Writ dated July 31, 1900. At the trial in the Superior Court before Bell, J. the plaintiff elected to go to the jury on the common law count alone. The plaintiff testified that he had worked for the defendant for ten or eleven years, and…
1Opinion of the CourtHammond, J.
It was the duty of the defendant to use due care to see that the ladder was in a safe condition; and, while the plaintiff was not thereby relieved from taking proper care himself, still, in passing upon the degree of care required of him, it must be borne in mind that he had the right to assume that the duty had been performed. The ladder was there for use as a way of getting into the hold, and he saw in the hold men who, as he knew, had passed over it only a few minutes before. He was ordered to join them. Under these circumstances, and without stopping to make any particular examination, he…
2Cited by9 opinions
- Crimmins v. BoothMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1909
- Proctor v. DillonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1920
- Afienko v. Harvard Club of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1974
- McGonigle v. O'NeillMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1922
- David Gobern v. Metals & Controls, Inc., Defendant-Third Party v. Walco Electric Co., Third-PartyCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit · 1969
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