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150 Mass. 484

McCart v. Squire

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 2, 1890

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1890-01-02

Petition to establish the truth of exceptions alleged by John P. Squire and others, in an action brought against them by Cornelius McCart, and disallowed by Bishop, J., who presided at the trial in the Superior Court. The petition was referred by this court to a commissioner, to hear the parties and report his findings, his report, so far as material to the point decided, being as follows.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1890-01-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently May 1961

8 state decisions

2018901900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Knowlton, J.

¶1The defendants’ requests for instructions were presented to the presiding justice at the close of the charge which covered the principal questions in the case. The first instruction asked for stated a proposition of law on the assumption that White “ was hired and required to perform habitually, and that he did perform habitually, daily manual labor as one of the gang of workmen.” After giving it, the presiding justice, apparently by way of caution, reminded the jury that the question was as he had previously stated it, whether White “ did or did not solely or principally exercise the duties of superintendence.” He told them that a finding, which included somewhat less than the hypothesis stated in the request, namely, that White “ performed manual labor every day, or upon occasion, *488in different parts of the department,” would not prevent their deciding that he was a superintendent within the meaning of the statute.

¶2The second request for an instruction assumed the same facts as the first, and also the fact that White’s negligence was in an act of the ordinary manual labor in which he was engaged. After complying with this request, the justice, without referring to the second branch of the assumption, repeated to the jury, in slightly different language, the first part of the caution which he had given in connection with the former instruction.

¶3Whether the additions which the judge gave to the instructions be deemed a material modification of them, or merely instructions not inconsistent with the others in a field not covered by them, it is obvious that the judge thought they were not in conflict with those requested, and he expressed that opinion to the defendants’ counsel. At the request of the judge, the counsel then attempted to point out the portion of the charge to which he objected. The judge again expressed the opinion that he had laid down the law as the defendants’ counsel then stated it, and told the jury that he again gave the ruling in the language which the counsel then used. The judge understood that he had complied with the defendants’ requests, and that no exception was insisted on, and the defendants’ counsel said nothing to indicate dissatisfaction with the last instruction, which purported briefly to cover the whole subject.

¶4If the defendants’ counsel still thought his requests had been materially modified, and intended to save an exception, it was his duty, in fairness to the plaintiff, as well as to the judge, to make known his dissent from the views last expressed by the presiding justice, and his wish to save an exception. The plaintiff’s counsel, to avoid an exception, might then have suggested some qualification of the charge, or the judge might of his own motion have given further instructions which would have prevented the possibility of misunderstanding.

¶5We are of opinion that the exception was not properly saved.

¶6Petition dismissed.

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