Haller v. E. A. Spry & Co.

45 Mass. App. Dec. 23
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedOctober 5, 1970
DocketNo. 7370; No. 26367
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 45 Mass. App. Dec. 23 (Haller v. E. A. Spry & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haller v. E. A. Spry & Co., 45 Mass. App. Dec. 23 (Mass. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

Parker, J.

In this action of tort the plaintiff’s declaration is in two counts. The plaintiff in Count I claims, through his father as next friend, personal injuries and in Count II the plaintiff is the father claiming consequential damages. Both Counts are based upon the neg[25]*25ligence of the defendant’s agents in moving furniture from the residence of the minor plaintiff’s father. The defendant’s answer was a general denial, contributory negligence and assumption of the risk. The court found for the plaintiff in the amount of $42,000.00 on Count I. No finding was made on Count II.

The docket shows that the finding for the plaintiff was entered 21 October 1968 which was a Monday. A draft report was filed by the defendant on 28 October 1968 the following Monday. The defendant’s counsel received notice of the Court’s finding 22 October 1968. There was evidence that defendant’s counsel attempted to file the report at the court on Saturday 26 October 1968, but was unable to do so because the court was closed that day, and therefore the draft report was filed on 28 October 1968. The plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss the draft report and the defendant filed a motion to strike the plaintiff’s motion. The motion of the defendant was allowed and the motion of the plaintiff denied. A consolidated draft report was settled by the court on 22 October 1969, which report was filed 30 January 1970. On 2 April 1970 there Avas a hearing on the consolidated report and an amended consolidated report was signed 19 May 1970. The case is before us on the amended consolidated report.

The plaintiff maintains that the court was in error in denying his motion to dismiss [26]*26the draft report and in granting the defendant’s motion to strike this motion by the plaintiff. Rule 27 of the Rules of the District Courts (1965), last sentence of the third paragraph, provides that a written request for a report shall be filed with the clerk within five [5] days after notice of the finding or decision. The last sentence of the fourth paragraph as Rule 27 states “A Draft Report filed within the period required for a request for a report under this rule shall be deemed to include a request for a report”.

“After notice” means after knowledge of the substance of the notice comes to the person to be notified. Regan v. Atlantic Refining Co., 304 Mass. 353. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. Petitioner 298 Mass. 75, 76. Jefferson v. L’Heureux 293 Mass. 490, 492.

The defendant received notice 22 October 1968, which was the 296th day of 1968, and 5 days after 22 October was 27 October 1968, the 301st day of 1968. 27 October 1968 was Sunday.

The second paragraph of Rule 2 of the Rules of the District Courts provides that when the day or last day for the performance of any act authorized or required by those rules — falls on a Sunday — the act may be performed on the next succeeding business day. § 9 of Chapter 4 of the General Laws also provides that if the last day for performance of any act required by statute falls on Sunday it may be [27]*27performed on the next succeeding business day unless a contrary intent appears.

It is settled law that when the period for an act to be done is less than a week, in determining the number of days within which the act is to be done Sunday is to be excluded. Muldoon v. West End Chevrolet, Inc., 338 Mass. 91, 94. Marcellino Petitioner, 271 Mass 323, 324. Stevenson v. Donnelly, 221 Mass. 161. Cunningham v. Mahan, 112 Mass. 58, 59.

Further when a statute fixes a limitation of time within which a particular act may be done, the day from which the time runs, which in this case is 22 October 1968, the day the defendant received the notice of the finding, is excluded. Therefore, excluding that date the five [5] day time limit began on 23 October and would terminate on the 28th of October 1968, the date on which the draft report was filed. Laine v. Aarnio, 265 Mass. 374, 375. Daley v. Dist. Ct. of Western Hampden, 304 Mass. 86, 94.

There was no error in the denial of the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the draft report nor in the allowance of the defendant’s motion to strike the same.

The defendant claims to be aggrieved by the denial of his requests for rulings and by the finding by the court on the defendant’s requests 1, 2 and 3.

The report shows that there was evidence tending to show the following:

[28]*28The family of the minor plaintiff consisted of his mother, his father and the minor plaintiff himself. The father of the minor plaintiff was on 18 December 1958 in the armed service. He had received orders that he was transferred to Glermany. The defendant corporation was engaged for remuneration by the 1st Army to remove household furniture from the plaintiff’s home. The defendant sent three (3) men and a moving truck on 18 December 1958 to the plaintiff’s residence, single family dwelling of three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom on the first floor, with a basement beneath the first floor. The father and mother of the minor plaintiff as well as the minor plaintiff were in the house. On that day the minor plaintiff was three years and two or three months old. When the movers arrived at about 8:30 A.M., the minor plaintiff was with his mother. At about 8:30 a.m. furniture in the master bedroom, where the accident happened, was removed excepting a bed and bed spring weighing about eighty pounds. The movers put the bed spring up against the wall, almost straight up and down in a perpendicular manner so that one end of the spring was touching the wall and the bottom end of the spring was about eight inches from the wall at the bottom. The floor upon which the spring was set was made of oak, was smooth, sanded and waxed.

Sometime later (the father testified at noon, [29]*29the defendant in answer to interrogatories which were a part of the evidence, said 10:30 a.m.), while two of the three movers were out on the moving truck, the plaintiff’s father with one of the movers went down into the basement to arrange for the moving of some items. "When they returned upstairs they heard a noise in the bedroom and a child crying. They went to the bedroom, found the door partly closed and the minor plaintiff on the floor of the bedroom with the bed spring on top of him. He had a large bump over his eye. His mother came from the kitchen and comforted him.

When the movers left, the parents noticed the minor plaintiff could not stand and he was taken to the Mass. General Hospital where it was discovered he had an acute fracture of the right femur. There were later injuries to the minor plaintiff and there was evidence that a later fracture of the minor’s left femur was causally related to the fracture which occurred 18 December 1956 and further that the condition of minor plaintiff’s right leg being one-half inch longer than the left was causally related to the original injury of 18 December 1956 and was permanent; and that the minor plaintiff would have to wear a lift in his left heel from now on for his lifetime and if he failed to wear the lift he would probably develop a curvature of his spine.

The defendant stated in answers to interrogatories that the parents of the minor plain[30]*30tiff were asked by the defendant to restrain the minor plaintiff, but his father denied his.

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Bluebook (online)
45 Mass. App. Dec. 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haller-v-e-a-spry-co-massdistctapp-1970.