Lawrence v. City of New Bedford
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by an alleged defect in a highway in the defendant city. Trial in the Superior Court, before Dewey, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows.
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Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by an alleged defect in a highway in the defendant city. Trial in the Superior Court, before Dewey, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows. There was evidence tending to prove that the plaintiff- was driving a pair of horses attached to a stage-coach' on Kempton Street in the defendant city, going west and using due care, with the nigh wheels of the coach just inside the north rail of a street-car track, when the front nigh wheel caught in a hole between the paving stones forming the bed of the track and the north…
1Opinion of the CourtKnowlton, J.
The only argument addressed to us in behalf of the plaintiff is a criticism of the charge of the presiding justice. We are of opinion that the jury could not have misunderstood the charge. It was, in substance, that where a street railway corporation has been lawfully authorized to construct and operate a railroad through the streets of a city, the existence of its tracks properly constructed, and the proper operation of its road, cannot be a defect in the streets for which the city is liable, even though they render the streets dangerous; and that, with this exception, the existence of a…
2Cited by4 opinions
- Hyde v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1904
- Cammett v. City of HaverhillMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1908
- Fowler v. Inhabitants of GardnerMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1897
- Harris v. Boston & Maine RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1912