Harris v. Inhabitants of Newbury
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for injuries occasioned to the plaintiff’s person and carriage by a defect in a highway in the defendant town. Writ dated January 29,1879. Answer: 1. A general denial. 2. That the defendant did not receive a sufficient notice of the plaintiff’s injury, as required by law.
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Tort for injuries occasioned to the plaintiff’s person and carriage by a defect in a highway in the defendant town. Writ dated January 29,1879. Answer: 1. A general denial. 2. That the defendant did not receive a sufficient notice of the plaintiff’s injury, as required by law. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Bacon, J., it appeared in evidence that, on January 2, 1879, the plaintiff and his son, who were travelling in a light buggy from Stratham, New Hampshire, to Salem in this Commonwealth, arrived in the defendant town about a quarter of an hour before sunset on that day; that…
1Opinion of the CourtSoule, J.
The question whether the injury complained of was caused by a defect in the highway, either in the road-bed, or in the want of a sufficient railing, was properly left to the jury. The evidence did not present a case in which the danger, if any, to be guarded against, lay at a distance without the limits of the road, but raised the question whether the land immediately outside the highway fell off so precipitously that there was such risk of a traveller, using ordinary care in passing along the road, being thrown or falling into a dangerous place, that a railing was necessary to make the way…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Murphy v. Inhabitants of GloucesterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- Puffer v. Inhabitants of OrangeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
3Cited by9 opinions
- Miles v. City of LynnMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1881
- Flagg v. Inhabitants of HudsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1886
- Jacobs v. City of St. JosephMissouri Court of Appeals · 1908
- Cutting v. Inhabitants of ShelburneMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1906
- Whitman v. Inhabitants of GrovelandMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1881
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