Post v. Foxborough
| Decision Date | 06 April 1881 |
| Citation | 131 Mass. 202 |
| Parties | Peter Post v. Inhabitants of Foxborough |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Norfolk. Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff, on August 27, 1877, by a defect in a highway in the defendant town. Trial in the Superior Court, before Aldrich, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions in substance as follows:
The plaintiff testified that, while driving on Oak Street in the evening, his horse and carriage were thrown over the side of a bridge or culvert into the bed of a brook; and that he left his wagon there; that, on the day after the accident, a notice signed by him, and addressed to J. F. Leonard chairman of the selectmen of the defendant town, was delivered to Leonard, and was as follows: "I want to know if that portion of Oak Street between Jason Morse's and David White's is private way or public highway, for I was thrown out of my team last night, and came near getting killed, and broke my wagon and had to leave it there."
Leonard testified that on receipt of the notice he sent two men to the place of the accident, who reported to him the condition of affairs at the place of the accident within an hour and a half after he sent them.
The plaintiff also signed and sent, on September 1, 1877, the following notice to Leonard: "I want to know what you are going to do about that accident that happened to me on Oak Street; I have hurt my shoulder so I cannot use it." Within three weeks after the accident, the plaintiff went and saw Newton Howard, one of the selectmen, and said to him "I got hurt down on Oak Street; ran off the bridge; hole is about two feet from wheel-rut; I got pretty well used up."
Oak Street is an old road in Foxborough; and, between the two houses mentioned in the first notice, is about half a mile in length with no curve in it, and with no other houses intervening; there are also two culverts or bridges in that space within one hundred and fifty feet of each other, of the same general character, at one of which the wheel-ruts run in about the middle of the travelled part of the road, and at the other, where the accident occurred, the wheel-ruts on that side is from nineteen inches to two feet from the edge of the travelled part of the road. The hole testified to by the plaintiff was the bed of a brook about three feet below the road-bed, running under the culvert or bridge mentioned by him.
The plaintiff asked that the question of notice might be referred to the jury to say whether the defendant received such notice as the statute required; but the judge ruled that the plaintiff did not give sufficient notice to the town for the foundation of this action; and ordered a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff alleged exceptions.
Exceptions overruled.
C. T Gallagher,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Tobin v. Inhabitants of Brimfield
...177 Mass. 373, 377, 58 N. E. 1013. The language in Donnelly v. City of Fall River, 130 Mass. 115, and Post v. Inhabitants of Foxborough, 131 Mass. 202, meant simply that there was no sufficiently accurate statement of the place to satisfy the statute. The question whether there was any evid......
-
Shallow v. City of Salem
...the side of the street. It was rightly ruled, therefore, that the notice was not sufficient. Larkin v. Boston, 128 Mass. 521. Post v. Foxborough, 131 Mass. 202. Lowe v. Clinton, 133 Mass. Cronin v. Boston, 135 Mass. 110. But the plaintiff contends that, inasmuch as there was no intention to......
-
Maloney v. Cook
...to be of any validity, must describe the particular locality, as well as the cause of the accident, with reasonable certainty. Post v. Foxborough, 131 Mass. 202; Noonan v. Lawrence, supra; Shallow v. Salem, 136 Mass. 136. To the same effect are the cases in Maine and Vermont. See Rogers v. ......
-
Tobin v. Inhabitants of Brimfield
... ... City of ... Springfield, 177 Mass. 373, 377, 58 N.E. 1013. The ... language in Donnelly v. City of Fall River, 130 ... Mass. 115, and Post v. Inhabitants of Foxborough, ... 131 Mass. 202, meant simply that there was no sufficiently ... accurate statement of the place to satisfy the ... ...