TaiLexi AI U.S. Case Law

Messenger v. Dennie

Orrin Messenger v. James Dennie

Messenger v. Dennie, 137 Mass. 197 (1884)
Download
Format
Include

Star paging (*137) is kept for pin cites.

Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · State Highest Courts
Decided
May 10, 1884
Judges
Allen
Citations
137 Mass. 1971884 Mass. LEXIS 226
Headnotes
A boy eight years and nine months old, who, while engaged in the sport of riding upon the runners of sleighs in the public streets, with the consent of his parents, suddenly leaves a sleigh on which he is riding, while it is in motion, in a frequented thoroughfare, without looking behind him, and within thirty feet of a horse and sleigh following it, by which he is struck and injured, is guilty of such negligence as to preclude him from maintaining an action for the injury.
Summary
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff, a boy eight years and nine months old, by being run over by the defendant’s horse and sleigh, on February 17, 1881, on Aspinwall Avenue in Brookline. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Pitman, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions. The facts appear in the opinion.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion of the Court — Allen

Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.

W. Allen, J.

There was no evidence of due care on the part of the plaintiff. He voluntarily and thoughtlessly put himself in a position of great and obvious danger. He suddenly left the sleigh on which he was riding, while it was in motion, in a frequented thoroughfare, and within thirty feet of the defendant’s horse, without looking back or thinking of what might be following. His injury was the natural consequence of his careless act. He was engaged in the sport of riding upon the runners of sleighs in the public streets with the consent of his parents; and, if he was too young to appreciate the danger of his act, he was too young to engage in that sport, and his parents were negligent in permitting it.

For this reason, without considering whether there was any evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant, the court should have ruled that the plaintiff could not recover.

Exceptions sustained.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

Cited by 28 cases

View all citing references →
1886–1887: 31888–1889: 21892–1893: 21894–1895: 31896–1897: 21898–1899: 21900–1901: 11902–1903: 11904–1905: 11906–1907: 11908–1909: 11910–1911: 11912–1913: 31918–1919: 21926–1927: 11936–1937: 11940–1941: 118862026peak 1886 · 3

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. Schoonover v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad73 S.E. 266 (W. Va. 1911)
  2. Western Railway of Alabama v. Mutch97 Ala. 194 (1892)
  3. Payne v. Chicago & Alton Railroad38 S.W. 308 (Mo. 1896)
  4. Collins v. South Boston Railroad7 N.E. 856 (Mass. 1886)
  5. Hayes v. Norcross39 N.E. 282 (Mass. 1895)
  6. Ecliff v. Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Co.31 N.W. 180 (Mich. 1887)

Most recent

  1. Wade v. Buchanan28 N.E.2d 421 (Mass. 1940)
  2. Willar v. Bergman2 Mass. App. Div. 213 (1937)
  3. Moeller v. Packard261 P. 315 (Cal. Ct. App. 1927)
  4. Todd v. Orcutt.183 P. 963 (Cal. Ct. App. 1919)
  5. Miller v. Flash Chemical Co.230 Mass. 419 (1918)
  6. Havermale v. Houck89 A. 314 (Md. 1913)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 0

No citations to other opinions in this database were found.

Keyboard shortcuts

/Focus the search box
j kNext / previous result
EnterOpen the selected result
xAdd / remove the selected result from the download list
n pNext / previous search term in a case
cCopy the citation of the current case
+ −Larger / smaller reading text
?Show this list