Tyson v. Booth
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for shooting the plaintiff. The defendant justified on the ground that he fired the shot in defence of himself, his house and household, against assaults made and threatened by the plaintiff and his associates.
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Tort for shooting the plaintiff. The defendant justified on the ground that he fired the shot in defence of himself, his house and household, against assaults made and threatened by the plaintiff and his associates. At the trial at November term 1867, before Chapman, J , these facts appeared: The defendant occupied, with his family and servants, a lot of land with a dwelling-house, in Dartmouth, separated by a wall from another lot on which stood a schoolhouse, the distance from his dwelling-house to the wall being sixty-six .feet. There was a side door in the dwelling-house, which overlooked…
1Opinion of the CourtHoar, J.
The ground upon which the evidence was rejected at the trial was the well established rule of law that in an action for an assault and battery the defendant may show in mitigation of damages immediate provocation, — that is, such as happened at the time of the assault, — but not such as previously happened. Avery v. Ray, 1 Mass. 12. And we have no doubt that the ruling of the presiding judge Was so far right, that nothing which was said or done by the plaintiff at any time before the time of the assault upon him was admissible, either in justification of the assault or in mitigation of…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Avery v. RayMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1804
3Cited by33 opinions
- Treadwell v. WhittierCalifornia Supreme Court · 1889
- Sloan v. EdwardsCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1883
- Montgomery v. Lansing City Electric Railway Co.Michigan Supreme Court · 1894
- Conroy v. Fall River Herald News Publishing Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1940
- Jackson v. Old Colony Street Railway Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1910
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