Morrison v. City of Lawrence
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for injury sustained by the plaintiff’s intestate by the negligent firing of a rocket by the defendants’ servant. At the trial, before Wells, J., there was evidence that on the evening of July 4, 1866, on the common in Lawrence, a rocket, fired by the city marshal or by a policeman detailed by him, hit the plaintiff’s intestate and inflicted a wound from which after some days he died ; and that it was fired as part of a display of fireworks in celebration of the…
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Tort for injury sustained by the plaintiff’s intestate by the negligent firing of a rocket by the defendants’ servant. At the trial, before Wells, J., there was evidence that on the evening of July 4, 1866, on the common in Lawrence, a rocket, fired by the city marshal or by a policeman detailed by him, hit the plaintiff’s intestate and inflicted a wound from which after some days he died ; and that it was fired as part of a display of fireworks in celebration of the holiday, which were procured and fired under the direction of the mayor, who testified that he acted throughout in his official…
1Opinion of the CourtBigelow, C. J.
A city or town cannot be held liable in damages for the act of a person, unless it appears that the injury was inflicted by a servant or agent of the city or town while engaged in the legitimate exercise of the service or business for which he was employed. Unless this is shown the maxim respondeat superior does not apply. Walcott v. Swampscott, 1 Allen, 101.
The only authority conferred on a city by which it can legally appropriate money to celebrate a holiday is found in St. 1861, c. 165. Before the enactment of that statute any appropriation of money for such purpose was illegal. Hood v.…
2Cited by48 opinions
- Tindley v. City of SalemMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1884
- People ex rel. Greenwood v. Board of SupervisorsIllinois Supreme Court · 1888
- Wheelock v. City of LowellMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1907
- Smith v. . City of RochesterNew York Court of Appeals · 1879
- Commissioner of Banks v. Cosmopolitan Trust Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1925
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