Burke v. Boston & Maine Railroad

I. The principal question in these cases is whether the defendant owed to its employees any duty in respect to the presence of surface water that came upon its premises shortly before the accident. The roadbed at this point is located at the foot of a considerable watershed, and, but for the artificial obstruction offered by an adjacent highway, water might be expected to come down as it did on the night in question. In the years preceding the accident, the highway had diverted the water, partly by a ditch at its upper side and partly by reason of the middle of the highway being low and…