Childs v. American Express Co.

• Decision Date: 26 February 1908
• Citation: 84 N.E. 128,197 Mass. 337
• Parties: CHILDS v. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

197 Mass. 337

84 N.E. 128

CHILDS v. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Essex.

February 26, 1908

COUNSEL

James H. Sisk, William E. Sisk, and Richard L. Sisk, for plaintiff.

Roland W. Boyden, for defendant.

OPINION

RUGG J.

The accident, for which this action is brought, occurred in a basement shipping room, where the plaintiff was employed by one Rogers. From this room a staircase 6 feet wide of 22 stairs, the tread of each stair being 18 inches in width leads up to a driveway. A tackle and fall were kept on the premises for use in raising articles from the basement by way of the stairs. The day before the accident a large, heavily filled, drummer's trunk was brought to the shipping room and remained there until the next day, when one Melzard, an employé of the defendant, came for it. The plaintiff, at his request, assisted in moving the trunk to the foot of the stairs. Melzard hooked one part of the tackle in a ring on a post upstairs, fastened one end of the rope on some part of his team, which stood at the head of the stairs, and gave the other end of the rope to the plaintiff, who at Melzard's request fastened it into the handle of the trunk. The plaintiff then returned to work, and shortly afterward heard a noise upstairs, whereupon without any request and of his own notion he ran to the foot of the stairs, where he saw the trunk apparently caught, and he called to Melzard to stop, and then, as he was turning to go to his work again the trunk came down, struck him and caused the injury complained of. The handle of the trunk at this time had been torn off.

This evidence fails to disclose any negligence on the part of the defendant. The cause of the accident is left wholly to conjecture. While it is not necessary for the plaintiff to exclude every possibility that the accident may have happened through some cause other than the negligence of the defendant, he is bound to introduce evidence enough to remove the cause from the realm of speculation, and give it a solid foundation upon facts, for the harmful effect of which the defendant is responsible. Woodall v. Boston Elevated Railway Co., 192 Mass. 308, 78 N.E. 446. There is no description of the handle of the trunk and it does not appear whether it was defective or worn, or whether any reason why it could not be safely used in connection with the tackle could have been discovered upon inspection. The...