338 Mass. 752 | Mass. | 1959
In this action of tort, which was tried to a judge of the Superior Court, there was evidence of the following: A new electric transformer (weighing about eight tons), which the plaintiff had purchased, had arrived on a flat car at a railroad siding in Fitchburg. One Sawyer, an
On December 5, 1951, the transformer was unloaded by the defendant from the freight car onto a truck of the defendant which consisted of a tractor and “flat bed trailer.” The transformer was then transported to the site in Lunenburg. Upon arrival at the site the trailer was backed to the entrance of the enclosure. Then by means of blocks, tackle, rollers and a winch the transformer was “inched” toward the rear of the trailer. As it approached the rear it “suddenly started to fall forward.” It “fell forward under the . . . trailer,” “rolled to the left side,” “slid off onto the street,” and was damaged.
The moving of the transformer was under the supervision of the defendant’s foreman, Williams, and no one employed by the plaintiff gave him any advice or instructions.
The judge found for the plaintiff and the case comes here on the defendant’s exceptions to the refusal to give certain requests for rulings. In substance these asked the judge to rule that a finding for the plaintiff was not warranted.
There was no error.
We agree, as the defendant argues, that no specific act of negligence on the part of the defendant was shown. And
tExceptions overruled.
It was conceded that Williams was authorized by the defendant to accept the job of moving the transformer and that “what Williams did, the defendant did.”