Conklin v. John Howard Industrial Home

• Decision Date: 19 May 1916
• Citation: 224 Mass. 222
• Parties: CHARLES CONKLIN v. JOHN HOWARD INDUSTRIAL HOME.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

224 Mass. 222

CHARLES CONKLIN v. JOHN HOWARD INDUSTRIAL HOME.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

May 19, 1916

March 16 1916.

Present: RUGG, C.

J., LORING, BRALEY DE COURCY, & CROSBY, JJ.

Witness Cross-examination, Direct examination. Practice, Civil Control of cross-examination by judge. Charity. Corporation Charitable.

Where, in an action of tort against a corporation for personal injuries alleged to have been received by the plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant in a wood yard operated by it, the defendant in its answer alleges that it is a charitable corporation and that the wood yard was operated by it in carrying out its charitable purposes, and at the trial the plaintiff calls as a witness the superintendent of the defendant, who was one of its incorporators, and makes inquiry as to the general management of the defendant's enterprises, the witness in cross-examination by counsel for the defendant may be permitted to state the purposes for which the wood yard was established and maintained.

And, where it does not appear that the superintendent, although an employee and a member of the corporation, had shown bias or prejudice in his testimony, the presiding judge was held properly to have ruled that the plaintiff, who had called him as a witness, should not be permitted to cross-examine him.

A charitable corporation, organized "for the purpose of assisting discharged prisoners and others," by furnishing them with a temporary home and employment, to lead honest and useful lives, which maintains for its purposes a lodging and boarding house called a Home, and a wood yard where employment is given to persons needing its help, who are paid something for their work and are given lodging, board and sometimes clothing, and the expenses of which corporation are paid in part from a sale of the wood from the wood yard, in part from the income from invested funds and in part from voluntary contributions, the corporation deriving no profit from its enterprises, cannot he held liable in an action of tort brought by an inmate of its Home and a worker in its wood yard for personal injuries received by him due to a defective condition of a wood chopping machine of which the defendant's superintendent knew or should have known.

TORT for personal injuries alleged to have been received by the plaintiff, while in the employ of the defendant, by reason of an alleged defective condition of a wood chopping machine at which he was set at work without adequate instruction or warning. Writ dated April 25, 1914.

The answer of the defendant as amended, besides containing a general denial alleged that it was incorporated in the year 1896 under the provisions of Pub. Sts. c. 115, Section 4, and the acts in amendment thereof and in addition thereto, "for the purpose of assisting discharged prisoners and others, by furnishing them with a temporary home and employment, to lead honest and useful lives;" that it was a charitable corporation and not a business corporation, and had "engaged in the work of helping those who have been convicted of crime and have served terms of imprisonment to lead them to become honest and useful citizens; that, solely for the purpose of carrying out the charitable objects set forth in its charter of incorporation and not for any private profit of its members or any of them, ...