Smith v. First National Bank
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort to recover the value of bonds of the United States for the payment in all of $1000, deposited with the defendants for safe keeping, and alleged in one count to have been lost through their negligence, and in another count to have been converted by them to their own use.
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Tort to recover the value of bonds of the United States for the payment in all of $1000, deposited with the defendants for safe keeping, and alleged in one count to have been lost through their negligence, and in another count to have been converted by them to their own use. At the trial in the superior court, before Brigham, J., the plaintiff’s evidence tended to show that the facts were substantially as follows : The defendants were an.incorporated bank, having a banking room in Westfield, divided into two portions by a counter and a partition resting upon it, through an aperture in which…
1Opinion of the CourtWells, J.
This was a gratuitous bailment. The defend* ants are liable only for want of ordinary care. Upon the facts which appear, mere failure to return the bonds upon demand would not constitute a conversion. The loss of the bonds is sufficient reason for not returning them, unless the loss occurred by the fault of the defendants. The action is in tort, and the burden is upon the plaintiff throughout. In order to charge the defendants with the loss, he must show gross carelessness on the part of the bank in some respect affecting the safe custody of the bonds, or which occasioned their loss.
As the…
2Cited by90 opinions
- Pennsylvania Railroad v. ChamberlainSupreme Court of the United States · 1933
- Massaletti v. FitzroyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1917
- Commonwealth v. O'BrienMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1940
- Sargent v. Massachusetts Accident Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1940
- Commonwealth v. McLeodMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1985
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