McIntyre v. Boston & Maine Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff in the State of New Hampshire, while in the defendant’s employ as brakeman, by the breaking of a stake inserted in the defendant’s freight car. Trial in the Superior Court, before Richardson, J., who directed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant; and the plaintiff alleged exceptions, the material portions of which appear in the opinion.
1Opinion of the CourtBarker, J.
There was evidence from which the jury might find that the plaintiff, while in the discharge of duty and using due care, was injured by the breaking of a weak, knotty, worm-eaten, and rotten stake, which was unfit for the use to which it had been put, of holding a load of railroad ties upon a platform car; and from the description of the stake it would be competent for a jury to find that the putting of such a stake to such a use was an act of negligence. The use of the stake as a means of facilitating the passage of a brakeman from car to car of the train made it the duty of the defendant to…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Coates v. Boston & Maine RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1891
- Bushby v. New York, Lake Erie & Western RailroadNew York Court of Appeals · 1887
3Cited by5 opinions
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- Littlefield v. Edward P. Allis Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1900
- Sundin v. Edward Rutledge Timber Co.Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · 1918