Coffin v. Inhabitants of Palmer

• Decision Date: 18 October 1894
• Citation: Coffin v. Inhabitants of Palmer, 38 N.E. 509, 162 Mass. 192 (Mass. 1894)
• Parties: COFFIN v. TOWN OF PALMER.
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

162 Mass. 192

38 N.E. 509

COFFIN v. TOWN OF PALMER.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampden.

October 18, 1894

COUNSEL

S.S. Taft and James B. Carroll, for plaintiff.

C.L Gardner, for defendant.

OPINION

BARKER J.

1. In our opinion, the notice was good. It indicated clearly that the place where the injury was received was upon the easterly sidewalk under a certain railroad bridge, and said that it was at a point on the walk just northerly of the northerly side of a certain side entrance leading to a railway station above; and the evidence tended to show that the place of injury was a little way from, and not more than 15 or 20 feet northerly of, the entrance.

2. The question of the plaintiff's care was for the jury. Although he knew of the danger from the ridge of ice, and was not thinking of it at the time when he fell, and although he might have taken the roadway instead of the sidewalk, there were other dangers arising from snow, from other icy places, and from darkness; and he testified that he was going cautiously, because it was slippery, and that he...