Smith v. Meegan

Decided October 15, 1855

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1855-10-15

Louis Court of Common Pleas. Demurrer to a petition. The petition is as follows : Plaintiff states that said defendant, Meegan, in the month of December, 1853, at the request of plaintiff, undertook to make certain repairs upon the steamboat Asia, then the property of plaintiff, of the value of $11,000, and, for that purpose, it became necessary to, and defendant did, by his servants and agents, haul said boat out of the Mississippi river upon a certain marine railway,…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently June 1909

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1855-10-15

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Leonard, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2The defendant was bound to use at least ordinary care for the preservation of the plaintiff’s boat, and if he launched it into the river at a time and under circumstances of great danger, which ought to have been foreseen, and which resulted in the destruction of the boat, notwithstanding the use of all proper care on the plaintiff’s part, he must bear the loss occasioned by his own improper conduct. This is the case substantially presented by the petition, and the judgment must therefore be reversed, and the cause remanded, in order that the matter may be tried upon the proof.

¶3Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.