Sullivan v. City of Holyoke

• Decision Date: 02 July 1883
• Citation: 135 Mass. 273
• Parties: Peter J. Sullivan, administrator, v. City of Holyoke. Peter J. Sullivan v. Same
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

135 Mass. 273

Peter J. Sullivan, administrator, v. City of Holyoke.

Peter J. Sullivan v. Same

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

July 2, 1883

[Syllabus Material]

Hampden. The first case was an action of tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff's intestate, Peter Sullivan by an explosion of naphtha, alleged to have been negligently stored by the defendant.

The second case was an action of tort for loss of services of said Peter by the same explosion, Peter being the minor son of the plaintiff.

The cases were tried together in the Superior Court, without a jury, before Putnam, J., who reported them for the determination of this court, in substance as follows:

Peter Sullivan was about twelve years of age. One Patrick Long, a boy about fourteen years of age, was employed by the superintendent of streets of the defendant city to trim the lanterns which were at that time placed, during the night near a sewer which was building in one of the public streets and to take these lanterns to the place where the sewer was, and to hang and light them there. These lanterns were kept inside of the building in which the explosion, hereinafter described, took place, and Long was accustomed to go nightly to this building to trim the lanterns, and then to go and set them, and light them.

On the morning of Saturday, July, 10, 1880, about half-past seven o'clock, he called at the house of Sullivan, and Peter went with him to this building. Long went inside, and began trimming the lanterns; Sullivan remained outside of the building, in an alley on which the building fronted. He had nothing to do about trimming the lanterns, and had no business at the place, but only went to accompany Long. Long had been engaged for about ten minutes in trimming the lanterns, but had not trimmed them all, when an explosion took place.

Some naphtha which was stored in one corner of the building, and placed there under the circumstances hereinafter named, exploded, but how or why it did so the judge was unable to find upon the evidence. Long used no matches while in the building, and the lanterns were not lighted at the time of the explosion. The main door of the building, which fronted on the alley, remained open while Long was in the building. The roof of the building was blown off by the explosion, and fell upon Sullivan in the alley. He was taken out in about half an hour, and at that time was dead. Long was drawn out from under the timbers which fell inside of the building, but was not injured.

This building belonged to the defendant, and was called the old lock-up, having been formerly used for that purpose. It was a small, low brick building, with a slate roof; a sixteen-inch wall, with three or four inches of plank between the courses of brick, and a stone cap to the main door, which opened out on to the alley. This alley was not an accepted street, but ran from one accepted street to another. There were two or three tenements in it, and it had been used generally by the public as a thoroughfare for fifteen or sixteen years. The building fronted on this alley, and stood about one hundred and ten feet from Main Street, and it was situated in a thickly settled part of the city. In 1879, and up to the time of the storage of this naphtha, it was used exclusively as a tool-house, in which the superintendent of streets was accustomed to store the tools used by the workmen in his employ about the public streets.

Some time in that year, and prior to July 10, Dennis Sullivan, who was chairman of the committee on fuel and street lights in the defendant city, asked the superintendent of streets for permission to store some naphtha (which was used in some of the street lamps) in one of the cells in this building.

The superintendent objected, and thereupon said Sullivan asked the chairman of the committee on streets if he could use a portion of the building for that purpose, and he said he might; and Sullivan thereupon ordered the naphtha to be moved into this building. The chairman of the committee on streets also told the superintendent of streets to let Sullivan store the naphtha there, and the superintendent thereupon had one of the cells cleaned out for the purpose. He also gave a key of the building to the city lamplighter, who was under the employ of the committee on fuel and street lights. The superintendent of streets hired and discharged the men in his employ, and sent the pay-roll to the city treasurer.

The defendant is a city with the ordinary powers of cities. The superintendent of streets was elected by the city council on joint ballot. At the time of the storing, in 1879, Dennis Sullivan was an alderman of the city, and chairman of the committee on fuel and street lights of that year. No action or vote of that committee was taken in reference to the storing of this naphtha. There was nothing on the records of the committee concerning it, and no member of the committee had any knowledge of the fact, excepting said Sullivan.

After this storing of naphtha in this building, in 1879, was begun under the foregoing circumstances, it continued to...