Lavoie v. Nashua Gummed & Coated Paper Co.

The defendants maintained a loading platform between their factory or storehouse and the railroad tracks, at the level of the floor of a freight car. The platform was 14 feet wide. Beneath it about ten feet back from the tracks they had sunk an open barrel into which steam and hot water wasted from their pipes. When the factory was in operation the barrel would be filled with hot water to its top which was approximately level with the surface of the ground under the platform. In loading the defendants’ product, pieces of paper would be torn from the bales and fall upon the tracks and…