Mattey v. Whittier Mach. Co.
| Decision Date | 28 November 1885 |
| Citation | 4 N.E. 575,140 Mass. 337 |
| Parties | Mary E. Mattey v. Whittier Machine Company |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Argued November 10, 1885.
Argued November 11, 1885.
Suffolk.
Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by the alleged negligence of the defendant's servant. Trial in the Superior Court, before Knowlton, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows:
The plaintiff was six years and seven months old at the time of the accident. She testified that, on the day of the accident she was walking on the right-hand sidewalk of Blossom Street in the city of Boston, from the direction of Cambridge Street towards Parkman Street; that when she came to the point where Blossom Street crosses Parkman Street, she looked to her right up Parkman Street, and saw a wagon of the defendant opposite a stable, and coming down Parkman Street on a fast trot; that she had two bundles under her arms; that she then started to go across Parkman Street; that when she was about half-way across Parkman Street she dropped one of her bundles; that she stooped to pick it up, when she heard a woman cry, "Stop, mister! little girl is picking up her parcel;" and that, while she was trying to pick up the bundle, the wagon ran over her and broke her leg. On cross-examination, she testified that, first, she dropped her bundle; then she heard the woman cry out; then she looked and saw the team coming, still on the trot, and not more than across the court-room, -- which it was admitted was thirty feet, -- but did not notice how the driver was looking; then she stooped with her back to the horses to pick up her bundle, and was run over by the wagon.
There was uncontradicted evidence that Parkman Street at this point was seventeen and twenty-four one-hundredths feet wide from curb to curb, and was paved with cobble-stones; that the wagon weighed four thousand eight hundred pounds; and that said stable was two hundred and fifty feet off.
The driver of the wagon testified, for the defendant, and there was other evidence to the same effect, that he was walking his horses. He also testified that, when he drove to and over the crossing, the plaintiff was not on the crossing or on the sidewalk; that when he was on Blossom Street, about twenty feet from the crossing, he heard a cry from a woman, looked around, and saw no child; that the wagon moved on a few feet and then, on looking around, he sa...
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