190 Mass. 84 | Mass. | 1906
The plaintiff’s intestate, while engaged with others in loading a heavy block of granite upon a freight car standing on a steep grade in a quarry, was fatally injured by the starting of the car and its running down the grade, thus causing the block to fall upon him and crush him. The evidence tends to show that the brake of the car was badly worn and out of repair, so that the brake shoe was off the wheel directly under the heavy stone, and was useless as a means of keeping the car in its place. Apparently this was the direct and proximate cause of the accident. If there was negligence of woi’kmen in failing to block the wheels with pieces of wood, as an additional precaution, that does not relieve the party responsible for the use of this defective car. The grade was not so steep that a proper brake could not control the car, and the evidence tends to show that the brake was mainly relied upon, and might properly be relied upon, for that purpose. It was important that a car to be used in that place should have a good brake, and the evidence as to the condition of the brake — not merely in reference to the shoe which slipped off the wheel, but in other particulars — was such as to warrant the jury in finding that the employee, whose duty it was to look after the condition of cars furnished for loading at the quarry, was grossly negligent in permitting this car to be used. Hartford v. New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad, 184 Mass. 365. Young v. New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad, 171 Mass. 33. Evenson v. Lexington & Boston Street Railway, 187 Mass. 77. Lutolf v. United Electric Light Co. 184 Mass. 53.
The question most discussed at the argument is whether there was evidence on which the jury could find that the defendant was the party whose duty it was to see that the cars were safe
The evidence tends to show that the plaintiff’s intestate was in the exercise of due care.
Judgment for the plaintiff.