Fox v. Pallotta

• Decision Date: 07 January 1931
• Parties: FOX v. PALLOTTA (two cases).
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

274 Mass. 110

174 N.E. 190

FOX

v.PALLOTTA (two cases).

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

Jan. 7, 1931.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Middlesex County; F. B. Greenhalge, Judge.

Separate actions by Everett B. Fox and by Leighton D. Fox by his next friend, against Antonio Pallotta. Verdict for defendants. On plaintiffs' exceptions.

Exceptions overruled.

J. H. Gilbride, of Lowell, for plaintiffs.

F. M. Qua, of Lowell, for defendant.

FIELD, J.

These are actions of tort. One was brought by Everett B. Fox to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him and for the destruction of his motor truck, and to recover expenses incurred by him for nursing, care and medical attention furnished his minor son, Leighton D. Fox. The other action was brought by the minor son by his next friend to recover damages for his personal injuries. The evidence was conflicting, but it could have been found that a motor truck, owned and operated by the adult plaintiff, in which the minor plaintiff was sitting, was struck by a motor truck, owned and operated by one Beraldi, that as a result both plaintiffs sustained personal injuries, the adult plaintiff's motor truck was destroyed, and the adult plaintiff was put to expense for nursing, care and medical attention for the minor plaintiff, that the accident was caused by the negligence of Beraldi, and that both plaintiffs were in the exercise of due care. In each case a verdict was directed for the defendant, and the plaintiff excepted.

The plaintiffs contend that it was error to direct verdicts for the defendant since the jury could have found (a) that Beraldi was the defendant's agent acting within the scope of his authority, or (b) that the defendant ‘by direction or permission caused the motor truck of Beraldi to be overloaded and sent out upon the highway under such circumstances as to constitute a nuisance and a trespasser upon the highway,’ or (c) that, even if Beraldi was an independent contractor and his truck ‘not a trespasser and a nuisance on the highway,’ it ‘was overloaded in violation of law by the defendant or his agents,’ as the defendant knew or should have known, and such overloading was a contributing cause of the accident.

The evidence tended to show that the defendant, under contract with the commonwealth, was engaged in building a state road in Westford, for which he was to be paid ‘by the ton,’ that ‘his ledge and stone crusher * * * [were] on property owned by him in Dracut,’ that he orally hired Beraldi with his truck to transport stone from Dracut to Westford at the rate of $.75 a ton and that Beraldi was so engaged at the time of the accident. There was no evidence of any express agreement between the defendant and Beraldi as to who was to load the truck or the weight of the loads to be carried. There was testimony that sometimes Beraldi loaded the truck, sometimes he was aided by the defendant's employees and sometimes these employees did the loading, and that when the truck arrived at Westford the defendant's foreman gave directions where to dump the stone. There was no evidence as to who had loaded the truck immediately before the accident. There was testimony that it was the practice when the truck was loaded to weigh it on the defendant's scales at Dracut, a representative of the commonwealth doing the weighing and keeping a record of the weight, and the defendant's daughter also keeping such a record for her father and sometimes in the absence of the commonwealth's weigher weighing a load for his convenience and at his request. On direct examination the defendant testified that his daughter weighed the loads and kept track of them for him but, on cross-examination, that she ‘only weighed loads before the state weigher arrived in the morning, and would tell the loads to the state weigher.’ There was evidence that she had weighed the load which was on the truck at the time of the accident and told Beraldi its weight, that the load weighed nineteen thousand pounds and the truck fourteen thousand and fifty, a total of thirty-three thousand and fifty pounds, and that the truck was registered for a maximum aggregate weight and carrying capacity of twenty-eight thousand pounds. It appeared that two loads had been carried previously on the day of the accident, each of which had a maximum aggregate weight of truck and load in excess of twenty-eight thousand pounds. Certified copies of rules purporting to have been adopted by the division of highways under authority of section 31A, added to G. L. c. 90, by St. 1924, c. 457, prohibiting the operation on a public way of a motor vehicle carrying personal property ‘when the weight of the load exceeds the carrying capacity for which such vehicle is registered, except * * * under authority of a permit issued under section 30 of chapter 85 of the General Laws as amended,’ and rules purporting to have been adopted by the commissioner of public works under authority of G. L. c. 90, § 33, as amended by St. 1925, c. 342, § 1 (see now St. 1928, c. 316, § 5), providing that the ‘maximum weight and maximum carrying capacity’ of ‘motor vehicles * * * used for the transportation of goods, wares or merchandise’ ‘shall not exceed 28,000 pounds' were introduced in evidence. Beraldi testified that ‘he had no permit to operate his truck other than his certificate of registration.’

The trial judge was right. The evidence did not warrant a finding that, at the time of the accident, Beraldi was the agent-or servant or employee-of the defendant...