Scanlon v. Boston & Albany Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for personal injuries received by the plaintiff while in the defendant’s employment as a brakeman. Trial in the Superior Court, before Dewey, J., who ordered a verdict for the defendant, and reported the case for the determination of this court, as follows.
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Tort for personal injuries received by the plaintiff while in the defendant’s employment as a brakeman. Trial in the Superior Court, before Dewey, J., who ordered a verdict for the defendant, and reported the case for the determination of this court, as follows. The plaintiff, after having been sent to Boston the previous Saturday for an examination as to color blindness, entered into the employment of the defendant on the day of the accident, which took place on Monday, February 7, 1887. He was on that day put as a brakeman upon a local freight train, which ran from Worcester to Boston. He…
1Opinion of the CourtW. Allen, J.
The danger, the risk of injury, which it is claimed that the plaintiff assumed, was not the particular danger from the post which caused the injury, but the general danger from the structures and erections near the track. The plaintiff had no actual knowledge of the danger, and he cannot be held to have assumed the risk of it unless the character of the danger and the circumstances are such as to show that he ought to have known and appreciated it. The fact that it was incident to the employment is not sufficient; peril from dangerous machinery or appliances or structures is incident to…
2Cases cited5 opinions
- Leary v. Boston & Albany RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1885
- Lovejoy v. Boston & Lowell RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1878
- Ladd v. New Bedford RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
- Ferren v. Old Colony RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1886
- Yeaton v. Boston & Lowell RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1883
3Cited by21 opinions
- Fitzgerald v. Connecticut River Paper Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1891
- Myers v. Hudson Iron Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1889
- Mahoney v. DoreMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1892
- Wagner v. Boston Elevated Railway Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1905
- Mundle v. Hill Manufacturing Co.Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1894
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