Evans v. Rice
| Decision Date | 07 April 1921 |
| Citation | 238 Mass. 318,130 N.E. 672 |
| Parties | EVANS v. RICE. FOLEY v. SAME. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Exceptions from Superior Court, Middlesex County; Richard W. Irwin, Judge.
Actions of tort by George B. Evans and by William J. Foley, Jr., against Abbott B. Rice. Verdicts for defendant, and plaintiffs except. Exceptions sustained.
The operation of an unregistered automobile on the highways of the commonwealth is unlawful, creates a nuisance thereon, and makes the driver and assenting owner liable for all the direct injury resulting from the act, although such injury was not the result of an act of negligence.
Under St. 1909, c. 534, s 5, the use of an automobile without displaying conspicuously its register number on two plates furnished by the highway commission is prohibited, and such operation is a ‘nuisance,’ making the driver and assenting owner liable for all direct injury resulting from their act, though not the result of negligence.
[Ed. Note.-For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, First and Second Series, Nuisance.]
Tufts, Harvey & Campbell, of Boston, for plaintiffs.
Alvah G. Sleeper, of Boston, for defendant.
These are two actions of tort against the same defendant to recover damages for injury to the property of the plaintiff in the first case, and for injury to the person of the plaintiff in the second case.
The injury to person and property resulted from a collision of two automobiles on Beacon street in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, on the morning of January 1, 1919. One of the automobiles was owned by the plaintiff George B. Evans, and in the absence of Evans was then being driven by the plaintiff William J. Foley. The other automobile was owned by the defendant Abbott B. Rice, and was being operated by one Lawrence Rice, a son of the defendant, with the permission of the defendant.
The disputed testimony warranted a finding that the defendant applied for registration of his automobile on December 31, 1918, paid his registration fee and received a receipt therefor under the provisions of St. 1909, c. 534, § 11, and that this receipt was in the automobile at the time of the accident. St. 1909, c. 534, § 11, reads:
It was admitted by the defendant that the car at the time of the accident did not have displayed conspicuously thereon its register number for the year 1919 on two number plates furnished by the commission. St. 1909, c. 534, § 9, provides:
‘No motor vehicle shall be operated after midnight on the thirty-first day of December in the year nineteen hundred and nine unless registered in accordance with the provisions of this act, nor unless such vehicle is equipped as provided in sections five, six and seven, except as is otherwise provided in section three.’
St. 1909, c. 534, § 5, provides inter alia that--
‘Every automobile operated in or on any way in this commonwealth shall have its register number displayed conspicuously thereon on the two number plates furnished by the commission, in accordance with the provisions of sections two, three and...
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