186 Mass. 396 | Mass. | 1904
The plaintiff’s intestate, his minor son, was drowned June 30, 1899, in a collision between a small boat in which he was, and a steamboat owned and run by the defendants
We think that the ruling requested should have been given, and that the exceptions must be sustained. The defendants had a summer hotel on the southerly side of the pond at aplace called Willow Dale and a small wharf for their steamboat. About half a mile in a northeasterly direction on the easterly shore of the pond was another small wharf also belonging to the defendants and used by them in their business, called Lakeview. During the summer season the steamboat plied between these points making two or three trips an hour for the conveyance of passengers. Tyng’s Pond is about a mile long and three quarters of a mile wide in its widest part. The testimony showed that the steamboat always followed the same course in going back and forth between the two wharves, or landings. About nine o’clock in the evening the plaintiff’s intestate and a companion by the name of Thorn and two young ladies started in a small rowboat from Willow Dale to go to Lakeview. The night was dark. There was no moon though some stars. Thorn did all the rowing and had charge of the boat with the consent of the plaintiff’s intestate. Tliey were cautioned before they started to look for the steamboat. Thorn was familiar with the course of the steamer and knew that she was then at Lakeview, and that her next trip would be from Lakeview to Willow Dale, and that on the route that they took to Lakeview they would meet the steamer and cross her course somewhere. They had been out only a few minutes when they heard the whistle of the steamboat blow, and heard the steamboat, and one of the young ladies told them to look out for the steamboat. The steamboat was then about one hundred and fifty feet away. Thorn thereupon changed his direction so as to row towards the shore and directly across the steamboat’s course, and continued to row in that direction until the collision occurred. At the time of the collision the plaintiff’s intestate was standing up in the boat, and the
Mxeeptions sustained.