Graham v. City of Boston
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Four ACTIONS of tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiffs by coming in contact with a dead wire hanging within a few feet of the ground across an electric wire in the street of the defendant city. The cases were tried together in the Superior Court, before Dunbar, J., who reported them for the determination of this court. The report recited the following facts.
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Four ACTIONS of tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiffs by coming in contact with a dead wire hanging within a few feet of the ground across an electric wire in the street of the defendant city. The cases were tried together in the Superior Court, before Dunbar, J., who reported them for the determination of this court. The report recited the following facts. The plaintiffs, all minors, were on their way home from Warren Bridge, at about nine o’clock in the evening of October 7, 1889, playing tag as they went. There was evidence tending to show that, just before the injuries…
1Opinion of the CourtAllen, J.
The only question reported in these cases for our decision is whether there was evidence to justify the finding of the court that the plaintiffs or any of them were travellers, *77within the meaning of the statute respecting public ways. Pub. Sts. c. 52, § 1.
It was held in Blodgett v. Boston, 8 Allen, 237, that a person who is using a highway simply for the purpose of play is not to be deemed a traveller. The court dwelt upon the fact that the plaintiff in that case was using the street for a purpose entirely foreign to any design or intent to pass or repass over it for the purpose of travel,…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Tighe v. City of LowellMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
- Gulline v. City of LowellMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1887
- Bliss v. Inhabitants of South HadleyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1887
- Hunt v. City of SalemMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
3Cited by4 opinions
- Frauenthal v. Laclede Gaslight Co.Missouri Court of Appeals · 1896
- Mobus v. Town of WaitsfieldSupreme Court of Vermont · 1902
- O'Donnell v. Inhabitants of North AttleboroughMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1916
- McCann v. City of BostonMassachusetts Appeals Court · 1991