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20 Wend. 210

Ford v. Monroe

New York Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1838

New York Supreme Court · decided 1838-10-15

This was an action on the case, tried at the Saratoga circuit in May, 1833, before the Hon. Esek Cowen, then one of the circuit judges. The declaration charged, that by the negligence of a servant of the defendant in driving a gig, a son of the plaintiff of the age of about ten years, was run over and killed.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1838-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 43 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 1998 · most notably The Harrisburg (1886), Moreno v. Sterling Drug, Inc. (1990)

2 district · 34 state decisions — followed in 14 states

8018381840185018601870188018901900191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

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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By the Court, Nelson, Ch. J.

¶1The main ground urged in support of the application for a new trial is, that the proof failed to establish that the servant was acting in the business of the master, or within the scope of his authority. The answer to which is that the point was not made upon the trial, neither in the motion for a non-suit or after the testimony had closed. The cause seems to have been tried and defended upon the assumption of the existence of the relation of master and servant between the defendant and the person driving the carriage. Had the objection been taken, more full proof might have been called out, so as to have placed the question beyond doubt. If the point had been put forth iri due season, as the evidence stands, the judge would have been bound to have submitted it to the jury, and their verdict would have been well warranted. It would therefore be unreasonable to disturb the verdict upon the ground now urged, as the counsel did not choose to avail himself of it when it could have been removed by his adversary by the production of further proof, or met by going to the jury upon that already given.

¶2The damages were specially laid in the declaration, and were clearly proved to have been the direct consequence of the principal act complained of; they therefore came within the well settled rule respecting special damage.

¶3New trial denied.

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