Consolidated Hand-method Lasting-mach. Co. v. Bradley
Decision Date | 19 May 1898 |
Citation | 50 N.E. 464,171 Mass. 127 |
Parties | CONSOLIDATED HAND-METHOD LASTING-MACH. CO. v. BRADLEY et al. |
Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Strout & Coolidge and G.S. Selfridge, for plaintiff.
C.C Barton, A.M. Lyman, and C.C. Barton, Jr., for defendants.
The next of kin of John M. Tierney, an employé of the plaintiff brought suit against the present plaintiff, under St.1887, c 270, in which they alleged, in the first count, that John M. Tierney was instantly killed from injuries received by reason of a defect in the ways, works, and machinery of the present plaintiff, which had not been discovered or remedied, owing to the negligence of a person in the employ of the plaintiff, and intrusted with the duty of seeing that the ways, works, and machinery were in proper condition. In the second count they alleged that said John M. Tierney sustained bodily injuries, from which he died without conscious suffering, by reason of the negligence of a person in the service of the present plaintiff, intrusted with and exercising superintendence, whose sole and principal duty was that of superintendence. The specific cause of the injury which resulted in the death of John M. Tierney is alleged in the first count, and that is the defective condition of an electric lamp and an electric current charged with electricity. The next of kin amended their declaration by adding a third count, which, so far as material to the present suit, did not differ from the first count. The present plaintiff, the defendant in that suit, answered by a general denial; and on the trial the jury found for the plaintiffs, and assessed damages in the sum of $3,000. The defendant in that suit filed exceptions, and a motion for a new trial. A new trial was ordered unless, the exceptions being waived, the plaintiffs would remit $1,500 from the amount of the verdict. The plaintiffs remitted this sum, and judgment was entered for $1,500 damages, and the costs of suit, which the defendant in that suit paid. The present suit was brought by the defendant in that suit against the present defendants to recover the amount of that judgment, and the costs and counsel fees incurred in the defense of that suit. Before the trial of the original suit the present plaintiff gave the defendants the following notice:
The exceptions in the present case recite as follows: "The defendants were not consulted as to the manner in which the defense should be conducted, although they were present at the trial." It appears, also, that the exceptions in the original suit were waived without the knowledge or consent of the present defendants. The substantial ground of the liability of the present defendants is alleged in the declaration in the present suit, as amended, to be as follows: All the counts of the declaration in the present suit allege notice to the present defendants to come in and defend the original suit, and that they neglected to do so, whereupon the present plaintiff defended it. The jury in the present suit rendered a verdict for the plaintiff, and assessed damages to the amount of the judgment in the original suit, and of the amount expended for costs and for counsel fees therein, with interest. In the trial of the present suit the defendants made 22 requests for instructions, which, with the exception of the fifth and sixth requests, were not given, except as appears in the charge of the presiding justice. The eighteenth and nineteenth requests were as follows: Many of the other requests proceed on the ground that the plaintiffs in the original suit, being the next of kin of John M. Tierney, had no cause of action against the present defendants, and that they recovered judgment against the present plaintiff on the ground of the negligence of the plaintiff, or of some persons in its service intrusted with the duty of seeing that its ways, works, and machinery were in proper condition, or intrusted with and exercising superintendence, and that there can be no contribution between wrongdoers. In the original suit the damages to be recovered, by the terms of the statute, were to be "not less than five hundred and not more than five thousand dollars, to...
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