O'BRIEN v. Island Corp.

I concur in the Court’s disposition of the claim against Aetna. I cannot concur, however, in the decision to reject plaintiff’s claim that the trial court should have charged the jury that violation of 21 V.S.A. § 241(b) could be considered evidence of negligence despite the absence of control of the boiler by Island. Plaintiff pled the statute and tried the case on the alternative theory that control was irrelevant. First the trial court, and now this Court, has cut the heart out of plaintiff’s case despite the fact that it is firmly based on precedents from this and other states.…