Smith v. Bay State Dredging & Contracting Co.

This is an action of tort for damages to the plaintiff’s lobsters stored in lobster cars floating at his wharf in Boston, caused by the defendant’s scraping of refuse matter under an adjacent wharf. At the close of the plaintiff’s opening, by direction of the judge the jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

*184In the opening the plaintiff stated that Fort Hill Wharf was a station for the disposal of garbage and ashes; that garbage is dumped from the wharf into scows; that some of the refuse matter drops from the scows into the bottom of the harbor and the accumulation of matter under the…