Page v. Hodge
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
Case. Facts found by a referee. The plaintiff is a farmer, and at the time of the occurrences stated below was securing his annual hay crop. Harvey Page, his servant, by his direction, was driving his horses, attached to his mowing-machine, from his field to his house. As the team was passing from the field into the highway, the defendant, with a scythe upon his shoulder, came along, travelling in the direction the team must take to reach the plaintiff’s hous'e.
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Case. Facts found by a referee. The plaintiff is a farmer, and at the time of the occurrences stated below was securing his annual hay crop. Harvey Page, his servant, by his direction, was driving his horses, attached to his mowing-machine, from his field to his house. As the team was passing from the field into the highway, the defendant, with a scythe upon his shoulder, came along, travelling in the direction the team must take to reach the plaintiff’s hous'e. Unfriendly feeling existed between the defendant and Harvey Page. The latter, on seeing the defendant, called out to him in such a…
1Opinion of the CourtBlodgett, J.
In effect, the referee has found, as matter of fact, not only that the plaintiff’s servant was guilty of negligence, but that the injury complained of would not have happened had it not been for such negligence. These findings preclude a recovery in this case.
By intrusting his team to the servant for the purpose of driving it home, the'plaintiff put it in the servant’s power to manage the team negligently, and must be deemed to have assumed the risk of the servant’s negligence in the execution of the trust so committed to him. And, moreover, as in contemplation of the law he who does a thing…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Niemi v. Boston & Maine RailroadSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1934