Wiggins v. Hathaway
New York Supreme Court
Motion to set aside a nonsuit and for anew trial. The action was brought against the defendant, who was postmaster at Rome, to recover $100 alledged to have been lost, and which belonged to the plaintiff.
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Motion to set aside a nonsuit and for anew trial. The action was brought against the defendant, who was postmaster at Rome, to recover $100 alledged to have been lost, and which belonged to the plaintiff. The first three counts of the declaration charged that the defendant was such postmaster, and that $100 was sent from Lafayette, in Pennsylvania, by mail, in a letter to the plaintiff, addressed to him at Rome ; that the same came to the hands of the defendant as such postmaster; that he refused to deliver it; and that “he so carelessly and negligently conducted himself in the premises that…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court, Pratt, J.
Conceding that the evidence was sufficient to authorize the jury to find that the letter actually arrived at the post office in Rome, yet it was, in our opinion, utterly insufficient to sustain the action of the plaintiff.
First. The defendant is clearly not liable for the malfeasance or embezzlement of his clerks or deputies ; and it seems to be the better opinion, also, that a postmaster is not liable even for their negligence. He is a public officer or agent of the government, and as such the rule of respondeat superior does not apply to him. He is allowed and…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Schmidt v. BloodNew York Supreme Court · 1832
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