Freeman v. United Fruit Co.

223 Mass. 300
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 223 Mass. 300 (Freeman v. United Fruit Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Freeman v. United Fruit Co., 223 Mass. 300 (Mass. 1916).

Opinion

Braley, J.

The action, which is tort for personal injuries, was submitted to the jury on the first count of the declaration which alleges, that while the plaintiff was lawfully on the defendant’s steamship lying at her dock, he “was severely injured by the wanton and reckless conduct of the defendant, its servants or agents, in hurling or dropping against him from a great height a large bundle of canvas.” A verdict having been returned for the plaintiff, the questions raised by the defendant’s exceptions to the admission and exclusion of evidence, to the refusals to rule as requested and to the instructions defining the plaintiff’s status while on the ship are presented for decision.

The first inquiry is, What were the plaintiff’s legal rights at the time of the injury? While not conceded, the jury, independently of the pass under which the defendant contended he was only allowed on board, would have been warranted in finding upon undisputed evidence, that the plaintiff, a tailor, whose business consisted largely in making, repairing and cleansing clothes for sailors and uniforms for officers of steamships, numbered among his customers the crews and officers of the defendant company with whom he had dealt for many years; and that, some time before the accident and while on the defendant’s ship, he had received an order “from the operator of wireless telegraphy” to make a uniform with the exception of the buttons which were to be furnished by the customer. It was admitted by the defendant, that the operator was properly on the ship and that the uniform was to be worn by him in connection with its “business.” The uniform being ready, the plaintiff notified the operator to come to his shop, but, upon being informed that he could not attend, coupled with a request for him to come to the ship at an hour named, the plaintiff complied, and, while passing to the room of the operator, the accident happened. It further could have been found upon all the evidence, that the defendant’s officers ought to have known of the plaintiff’s previous course of business with the company’s employees, among whom the jury could say the operator should [302]*302be classed. The plaintiff, however, having been permitted to transact business on the defendant’s ships solely for his own pecuniary gain, was but a licensee, to whom the defendant owed no duty except to refrain from wantonly and wilfully causing him harm. Reardon v. Thompson, 149 Mass. 267, 268. Dickie v. Davis, 217 Mass. 25, 30.

The further inquiry is whether there is evidence of a breach of this obligation. No question of the defendant’s negligence or the plaintiff’s due cafe is involved. The first count of the declaration does not allege carelessness. It charges the commission of a wrong by the company, which is liable for the acts of its servants done wilfully, recklessly or wantonly in the course of their employment. Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway, 184 Mass. 269, 274. Yancey v. Boston Elevated Railway, 205 Mass. 162, 171. The plaintiff was not required to prove a particular purpose or intention to harm him. Where personal injuries are thus caused the defendant is held to have intended the natural consequences of what he does, and “there is a constructive intention as to the consequences, which, entering into the wilful, intentional act, the law imputes to the offender, and in this way a charge which otherwise would be mere negligence, becomes by reason of a reckless disregard of probable consequences a wilful wrong.” Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway, 184 Mass. 269, 271. Fottler v. Moseley, 185 Mass. 563, 565. Romana v. Boston Elevated Railway, 218 Mass. 76. Bigelow on Torts, (8th ed.) c. 3, § 2.

The complete indifference to consequences distinguishes wrongs caused by wantonness and recklessness from torts arising from negligence, and the jury properly could find that the roll of canvas stiffened with ice which struck the plaintiff while on the main deck, breaking his leg, was deliberately thrown over the rail from the upper or boat deck without the slightest consideration for the safety of whomsoever might happen to be in the way as the canvas descended. Pierce v. Cunard Steamship Co. 153 Mass. 87, 88, 89. Commonwealth v. Byard, 200 Mass. 175, 177. The presiding judge

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Bluebook (online)
223 Mass. 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/freeman-v-united-fruit-co-mass-1916.