Howard v. City of Worcester
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff while travelling along a highway in the defendant city by the negligence of its servant in blasting rock in excavating for the foundations of a schoolhouse upon adjoining land.
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Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff while travelling along a highway in the defendant city by the negligence of its servant in blasting rock in excavating for the foundations of a schoolhouse upon adjoining land. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Blodgett, J., the evidence showed that the defendant city, on April 19, 1887, duly executed a contract with one Kenney to put in the foundations and do the necessary excavating for a new public schoolhouse to be erected by the city on a lot of land which it owned; that Kenney in the course of the work proceeded to remove…
1Opinion of the CourtC. Allen, J.
The city contends that, even assuming that Kenney was its servant in such a sense that ordinarily it might be responsible for his acts or his negligence, it is nevertheless exempt from responsibility to the plaintiff in the present case by reason of the nature of the work which it was carrying on, namely, the construction of a schoolhouse for public use.
*427It was held in the familiar case of Hill v. Boston, 122 Mass. 344, that a city is not responsible in damages to a child attending a public school in a schoolhouse provided by the city, under the duty imposed upon it by general laws, for an…
2Cases cited15 opinions
- Hill v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
- Oliver v. City of WorcesterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1869
- Fisher v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- Tindley v. City of SalemMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1884
- Benton v. Trustees of the City HospitalMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1885
10 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.
3Cited by28 opinions
- Bolster v. City of LawrenceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1917
- Moynihan v. ToddMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1905
- Proprietors of Mount Hope Cemetery v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1893
- Board of Commissioners v. AllmanIndiana Supreme Court · 1895
- Howard v. Tacoma School District No. 10Washington Supreme Court · 1915
23 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.