Fourseam Coal Corporation v. Hatfield

Opinion of the Court by

Judge Rees

Affirming.

On March 30, 1937, Melvin Ray Hatfield was seriously injured by the explosion of a dynamite cap with which he was playing. The accident happened twenty days after his twelfth birthday. These two actions were brought against the Fourseam Coal Corporation to recover damages; one by the injured boy’s parents for loss of services of their son, and one by his father as his next friend for his permanent injuries and pain and suffering. The actions were based on the theory that the defendant, its servants and agents, negligently permitted a dynamite cap to…