(DOWNLOAD) "Liddell v. Middlesex Motor Co. Et Al." by Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Liddell v. Middlesex Motor Co. Et Al.
- Author : Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- Release Date : January 16, 1931
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 68 KB
Description
SANDERSON, J. This is an action of tort for personal injuries to the plaintiff, a boy five years of age, caused by an automobile
driven by Louise Fee, on a public way in Cambridge on March 9, 1927. At the Conclusion of the evidence counsel entered into
a stipulation that the Judge would submit to the jury the issues of due care and damages, and if the jury found that the plaintiff
was in the exercise of due care and assessed damages, the Judge would direct a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum found
by the jury and report the case to the Supreme Judicial Court upon the terms that if on the competent evidence the jury might
properly have found for the plaintiff the verdict was to stand, otherwise judgment was to be entered for the defendant. The
jury found that the plaintiff was in the exercise of due care and assessed damages in a stated sum. Thereupon a verdict was
directed for the plaintiff in that sum and in accordance with the stipulation the case was reported to this court. The defendants described in the writ are Middlesex Motor Company, 'a corporation duly established by law and having a usual
place of business in Concord,' and Louise Fee. On August 6, 1928, before the case went to trial on the merits, judgment was
entered in favor of Louise Fee following a non-suit because of the failure of the plaintiff to answer interrogatories propounded
to him by her. The substituted declaration filed in 1930 alleges that Louise Fee was operating the automobile negligently
and was unlawfully upon the highway, the automobile not having been duly registered; 'that the defendant his agents or servants,
unlawfully and without right loaned to the said Fee or to some other person' certain registration plates issued to the defendant
by the registrar of motor vehicles for the commonwealth of Massachusetts; that these number plates were attached to the car
driven by Fee in violation of the laws of the commonwealth; and that the plaintiff was injured as a result of the defendant's
contribution to and creation of a nuisance. The answer purporting to be made by the defendant 'Middlesex Motor Company' is
a general denial, contributory negligence and, by amendment in 1930, the defence was set up that at the time of the accident
the motor car was being operated by and under the control of a person for whose conduct that defendant was not legally responsible.
The substituted declaration seems to base liability so far as the Middlesex Motor Company is concerned solely upon proof of
a nuisance for which that defendant is legally responsible. The record states that the 'plaintiff's claim is that the defendant
by loaning its number plates to one Francis P. Fee contributed to cause the automobile which came into collision with the
plaintiff to be a trespasser on the highway and therefore a nuisance.' Ervin L. Bumford testified that he did business under
the trade name Middlesex Motor Company. The case will first be considered upon the assumption that the action was properly
brought, or can now be maintained against him either in his own name or under the designation of the defendant in the writ.