Currier v. Whitin Machine Works

This is an action by an employee against his employer for damages alleged to be due to a defective machine upon which he was working when injured. The employer was not a subscriber under the workmen’s compensation act, G. L. c. 152. This, however, does not relieve the plaintiff of the burden of proving that negligence of the employer was a proximate cause of the injury.

*84As was said in Mammott v. Worcester Consolidated Street Railway, 228 Mass. 282, 284, “There can be no negligence where there is no duty.” “The workmen’s compensation act does not enlarge the duty of an employer who is not a…