274 Mass. 508 | Mass. | 1931
This is an action of tort. The plaintiff seeks to recover compensation for personal injuries received by him through a collision between an automobile in which he was riding on a public way with an automobile of the defendant. The trial judge, pursuant to motion, directed a verdict in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff excepted. One ground set forth in the motion was that the motor vehicle in which the plaintiff was riding was a trespasser upon the highway and the plaintiff, knowing that it was not being operated with the number plates of the owner, is not entitled to recover. Testimony of the plaintiff was to the effect that he was employed by the Newton Auto Sales Inc.; that the motor vehicle in which he was riding bore the plates of his employer and was owned by one Turner, a dealer in automobiles; that he had driven the motor vehicle to the house of one Quinn, to whom he was trying to sell it and by whom, at the time of the accident on a Sunday, it was being driven. The defendant contends that the plaintiff was knowingly in a car then being operated in violation of G. L. c. 90, § 9, which forbids the operation upon any way of a motor vehicle not licensed in accord with c. 90, and carrying its register number.
The car in which the plaintiff was riding bore a number plate issued to the Newton Auto Sales Inc. That company did not own the car. Its number plate could be used properly upon the car to give it a legitimate standing upon a way only if the company at the time of this .accident was in the business of repairing motor vehicles or was a manufacturer or dealer in them within the provisions of G. L. c. 90, § 5, as amended by St. 1923, c. 464, § 2, and was in control of the car. McDonald v. Dundon, 242 Mass. 229. G. L. c. 90, §§ 5, 6, 9, as then amended. The bill of exceptions is bare of evidence to show the relations between Turner, the owner, and the Newton Auto Sales Inc., or that the Newton Auto Sales Inc., was then
Exceptions overruled.