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36 Mass. 72

Downer v. Davis

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1837-03-27

Assumpsit on a contract to slaughter twenty-seven head of cattle, and to pack and salt the beef, in a careful and skilful manner. At the trial, before Morton J., it appeared, that Jonathan Hastings, a deputy inspector and packer of beef, was employed by the defendant to pack and salt the beef in question ; but that it did not keep sweet, and was sold with the consent of the defendant as damaged.

Decided 1837-03-27

Per Curiam.

¶1Hastings, the son, was, we think, a competent witness. He was merely employed as an assistant to his father, to do such acts as he was directed to do, the whole, as he testifies, being done under the eye and immediate direction of his father. Without reference to the relation of these parties as father and son, but regarding the witness as an independent hired laborer, we do not perceive how he could be liable for acts thus done by the special direction of his employer. But were it otherwise, he could be responsible to nobody but his father, who employed him ; and from that responsibility, ‘he father’s release effectually discharged him.

¶2Judgment on the verdict.

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