175 Mass. 502 | Mass. | 1900
The plaintiffs concede that if the death was with conscious suffering, the action, which is brought under the employers’ liability act by the next of kin of the deceased who were dependent on him, cannot be maintained. The accident occupied only a few seconds, and although the second in which the deceased was killed was separated as a point of time from the second in which he fell from the car, the accident was one accident from its beginning to its end, in which the same causes were operating during the brief interval which elapsed between the fall of the deceased and his death. We do not see how without resorting to what would seem to partake of a metaphysical nicety the second in which the deceased was killed can be separated from the second in which he fell and the seconds which intervened between that and the death so as to say that the death was without conscious suffering.
We are also of opinion that if the plaintiffs were allowed to amend, assuming that they could properly be allowed to do so,
Verdict to stand; judgment for the defendant.