Mackin v. Boston & Albany Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries received by a brakeman, while in the defendant’s employ. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Rockwell, J., the plaintiff’s evidence tended to show that on May 19, 1881, he was the rear brakeman on a train of freight cars which was at Brookline, about two miles from the freight yard of the defendant at Boston; that it was the plaintiff’s duty to shackle certain cars, standing on a side track, to the train; that he did this, and then walked…
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Tort, for personal injuries received by a brakeman, while in the defendant’s employ. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Rockwell, J., the plaintiff’s evidence tended to show that on May 19, 1881, he was the rear brakeman on a train of freight cars which was at Brookline, about two miles from the freight yard of the defendant at Boston; that it was the plaintiff’s duty to shackle certain cars, standing on a side track, to the train; that he did this, and then walked towards the rear of the train, and, after the train started, attempted to get on the rear car by means of a ladder at its…
1Opinion of the CourtC. Allen, J.
Even if the car in question is treated as a car of the defendant, furnished by it for its local business between Boston and Brookline, the instructions given to the jury seem to us to hold the defendant to a higher degree of responsibility than the law imposes upon it. The words, “ if, whenever there was a defect, that defect was repaired and removed,” when taken in the connection in which they occur, virtually required the defendant to warrant the perfect condition of the car. This is in excess of the rule, as recently declared in Holden v. Fitchburg Railroad, 129 Mass. 268, 274, 276, 277,…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Holden v. Fitchburg RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1880
3Cited by32 opinions
- Alabama Great Southern Railroad v. CarrollSupreme Court of Alabama · 1892
- Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad v. McMullenIndiana Supreme Court · 1889
- McNamara v. Boston & Maine RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1909
- Gottlieb v. . N.Y., L.E. W.R.R. Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1885
- Moon v. Northern Pacific RailroadSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1891
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