White v. Sander

• Decision Date: 19 May 1897
• Citation: 47 N.E. 90,168 Mass. 296
• Parties: WHITE v. SANDER (two cases).
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

168 Mass. 296

47 N.E. 90

WHITE v. SANDER (two cases).

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

May 19, 1897

COUNSEL

Lesser & Fall, for plaintiffs.

J.F. Pickering and E.S. Hill, for defendant.

OPINION

ALLEN, J.

There was no evidence that the defendant had any intention to injure the female plaintiff, or that he was aware of her condition of health. The house did not belong to her, but to her father, with whom the defendant had an altercation. The defendant's declared purpose was to injure the house, and he threw a large stone against it, in her presence. She then ran into the front room, with her little child, whereupon a large stone was willfully thrown by the defendant, which passed through one of the blinds, all of the blinds upon the front windows being closed. This greatly frightened her, though she was not struck or touched. We do not understand by the bill of exceptions that the defendant knew that she was in that room, or that he had any purpose either to hit or to frighten her, or that it was designed to present to us a case of an intentional injury to her or to her property. These elements being absent, the defendant was not responsible in damages for her fright or the consequent injury to her health. Spade v. Railroad Co., 47 N.E. 88. Under the order taking off the default, the defendant was responsible for nominal damages. Exceptions sustained.