191 Mass. 70 | Mass. | 1906
This is an action of tort for negligence in maintaining a sewer and drain in Spencer Street, in the defendant city, and thereby causing sewage to back into and flood premises belonging to the plaintiff. At the close of the evidence, the judge, at the defendant’s request, ruled that there was no evidence to go to the jury, and instructed them to return a verdict for the defendant which was done. The case is here on exceptions by the plaintiff to this ruling and instruction. There are also exceptions relating to the exclusion of evidence.
The negligence complained of was in allowing a drain, built by the defendant to aid in connecting the estate now belonging to the plaintiff with the sewer, to be clogged up with pieces of cement. The drain was put in in 1894. The plaintiff’s house was completed in October, 1902, and from that time until Eeb
We see no error in the exclusion of the evidence that was offered.
Exceptions overruled.
“ The evidence tended to show that, at the time of the alleged damages, the six inch pipe which the city had built under the culvert was blocked in that part that was under the culvert with several pieces of cement, one of which was five inches square. The work of clearing out the pipe after the stoppage was done by the defendant after notice from the plaintiff.”
The evidence excluded was as follows:
1. The plaintiff offered to prove that the defendant had received from certain persons on Spencer Street fees for the use of the sewer, and had therefore received compensation for the use of the same.
2. The plaintiff offered to show that in the ordinary construction of pipes like the six inch pipes, certain methods are adopted as the joints are made, one after another, for the purpose of securing a free and open pipe, not particularly here, but in every instance, and what the result of that sort of work would be. (This was offered for the purpose of arguing as to the way in which the concrete came into the six inch pipes.)