287 Mass. 441 | Mass. | 1934
The plaintiff in the first action, a minor, was injured when the motor cycle which he was driving came into collision with an automobile driven by the defendant on the Hadley Road in the town of Sunderland between 10:30 and 11 p.m. on July 16, 1930. The case of the minor plaintiff was tried with an action brought by his father for consequential damages following the son’s injury. There was’ a verdict for each plaintiff and the cases are here on the defendant’s exceptions to the denial of his motions for directed verdicts. Where the word plaintiff is hereinafter used the minor plaintiff is meant.
The facts preceding the collision, as the jury might have found them, may be briefly stated. The plaintiff on his motor cycle was proceeding along a straight, dry, macadam road eighteen feet in width, with wide shoulders on each side. The sky was clear but there was no moon. While moving at the rate of about thirty-five miles an hour the
The plaintiff testified on cross-examination that the headlight on his motor cycle would not disclose to him objects in the road at a greater distance than seventy-five or eighty feet ahead. The defendant here contends that a rule or
The jury were warranted in finding that the minor plaintiff was the owner of the motor cycle. He alone negotiated for its purchase. There was evidence that the father “presented” and that he “gave” to the son the money required for the initial payment on the purchase of the motor cycle. It was apparently treated by both as the property of the son. It did not appear that the father had a license which would permit him to operate it, that he ever did operate it or that it was ever used for his benefit or purposes. The ownership of the motor cycle was a question of fact and there was evidence which would support a finding that the son was the owner. A contrary finding was not required because the father furnished the purchase money (Nash v. Lang, 268 Mass. 407) or because the invoice or sales slip issued by the vendor bore the name of William Kozak as purchaser and was signed by the father in that name (McTigue v. Ryan, 286 Mass. 515),
Exceptions overruled.