Banks v. Highland Street Railway Co.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for personal injuries occasioned, on April 30, 1881, to the plaintiff, who was in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company, while engaged in climbing a telegraph pole on Columbus Avenue in Boston, and carrying a telegraph wire attached to his person, by a car of the defendant corporation running against the wire, which extended across the highway, and pulling the plaintiff from the pole.
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Tort for personal injuries occasioned, on April 30, 1881, to the plaintiff, who was in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company, while engaged in climbing a telegraph pole on Columbus Avenue in Boston, and carrying a telegraph wire attached to his person, by a car of the defendant corporation running against the wire, which extended across the highway, and pulling the plaintiff from the pole. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Gardner, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions. The facts appear in the opinion.
1Opinion of the CourtColburn, J.
It was not the purpose of the U. S. Rev. Sts. § 5263, to deprive the States of the right to regulate, to a reasonable extent, the manner in which lines of telegraph shall be constructed over and along post-roads of the United States. Pensacola Telegraph v. Western Union Telegraph, 96 U. S. 1. There is no conflict between the Gen. Sts. c. 64 (Pub. Sts. c. 109) andi the statute of the United States ; and, so far as any question arises in this case, that statute may be disregarded. The Gen. Sts. c. 64, § 2, provide that incorporated telegraph companies “ may, under the provisions of the…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Pensacola Telegraph Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co.Supreme Court of the United States · 1878
- Inhabitants of Arundel v. M'CullochMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
3Cited by13 opinions
- Newcomb v. Boston Protective DepartmentMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1888
- Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1903
- McKenna v. AndreassiMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1935
- Potter v. GilmoreMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1933
- Todd v. Traders & Mechanics InsuranceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1918
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