Commonwealth v. Boston & Lowell Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment on the St. of 1874, c. 372, § 163, for causing the death of Daniel Driscoll, on May 3, 1881, while a passenger on a train of cars of the defendant corporation.
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Indictment on the St. of 1874, c. 372, § 163, for causing the death of Daniel Driscoll, on May 3, 1881, while a passenger on a train of cars of the defendant corporation. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Brigham, C. J., it appeared that Driscoll was a passenger on the defendant’s road at the time named in the indictment, and, although there was room for him to stand within the cars, he was standing on the front platform of the first passenger car, when the train, through the negligence of an employee of the defendant, in misplacing a switch, left the main track, and ran into a train…
1Opinion of the CourtColburn, J.
The only question presented in this case is whether, at a trial under an .indictment for causing the death of a passenger, based upon the provisions of the St. of 1874, c. 372, § 163, the want of due care on the part of the passenger killed is a defence to such indictment.
The first statute upon this subject was the St. of 1840, e. 80, which provided that, “ if the life of any person, being a passenger, shall be lost by reason of the negligence or carelessness of the proprietor or proprietors of any railroad, steamboat, stagecoach, or of common carriers of passengers, or by the unfitness or…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. Boston & Albany RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
3Cited by22 opinions
- Berdos v. Tremont & Suffolk MillsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1911
- Boott Mills v. Boston & Maine RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1914
- Commonwealth v. PentzMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1924
- Boston & M. R. R. v. HurdCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit · 1901
- Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. CassinSupreme Court of Georgia · 1900
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