Eastman v. Scott
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Toet by the driver of a laundry wagon employed by the defendants for injuries from being kicked by a horse of the defendants which the plaintiff was driving, the declaration alleging that the defendants negligently provided the plaintiff with a horse owned by them which had the vicious habit of kicking, a fact known or which ought to have been known by the defendants and of which the plaintiff was ignorant.
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Toet by the driver of a laundry wagon employed by the defendants for injuries from being kicked by a horse of the defendants which the plaintiff was driving, the declaration alleging that the defendants negligently provided the plaintiff with a horse owned by them which had the vicious habit of kicking, a fact known or which ought to have been known by the defendants and of which the plaintiff was ignorant. Writ dated March 25, 1901. At the trial in the Superior Court before GrasJcill, J., it appeared, that the plaintiff was twenty-seven years old and had driven horses since he was sixteen…
1Opinion of the CourtBarker, J.
We think there was no sufficient evidence that up to the time of the accident the horse had a vicious habit of kicking or that the defendants knew or ought to have known that it had such a habit.
There is nothing from which to infer that they knew more about the habits of horses than the ordinary man in whose business the use of horses is a mere incident. The animal had been in their possession but a month and a half, and had so far as appears never given but a single kick, and that in its stable and under circumstances from which to say that the kick was vicious is merely conjecture. These…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Lynch v. RichardsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1895
3Cited by13 opinions
- Doe v. BarnettIndiana Court of Appeals · 1969
- Andrews v. Jordan Marsh Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1933
- Goodwin v. E. B. Nelson Grocery Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1921
- Hosmer v. . CarneyNew York Court of Appeals · 1920
- Clark v. BringsSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1969
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