Obertoni v. Boston & Maine Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, by a boy eight years old when injured, for personal injuries caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant and its servants in leaving a signal torpedo on the public crossing of the defendant’s railroad on Furness Street in North Adams, where it was found by the plaintiff, who, believing it to be harmless, took it home and cracked it with a rock, receiving the injuries alleged.
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Tort, by a boy eight years old when injured, for personal injuries caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant and its servants in leaving a signal torpedo on the public crossing of the defendant’s railroad on Furness Street in North Adams, where it was found by the plaintiff, who, believing it to be harmless, took it home and cracked it with a rock, receiving the injuries alleged. Writ dated November 6, 1903. At the trial in the Superior Court before Maynard, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $200 ; and the defendant alleged exceptions.
1Opinion of the CourtLoring, J.
The evidence in this case warranted a finding that the plaintiff, a boy eight years of age, found a signal torpedo on the planking of the railroad, at a grade crossing of a highway; that he took it home and, not knowing the danger, cracked it with a rock and was hurt. In addition there was the testimony of one Paris that “ a brakeman threw the torpedo to the flagman at the crossing and it dropped at his feet as he did not catch it; that the flagman threw it back to the brakeman and he did not catch it and the torpedo dropped to the ground ”; that “after the train went by, the flagman went…
2Cases cited9 opinions
- Cassady v. Old Colony Street Railway Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1903
- McCarthy v. TimminsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1901
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