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49 Me. 29

Lyons v. Woodward

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

Decided July 1, 1860

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1860-07-01

On Exceptions. This was a special action on tbe case, founded on the provisions of c. 17, § 8, of B. S. The plaintiff alleges in substance, that she is the widow of Jeremiah Lyons, now deceased, on whom she and their children were solely dependent for support; that her said husband was employed by the defendant and was in his service in the steam mill, in Bangor ; that a steam boiler was used by the defendant, having no fusible safety plug, contrary to the form of the…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently April 1978

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-07-01

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¶1The opinion of the Court was drawn up by

Cutting, J.

¶2At common law, no cause of action ac*30ernes to the plaintiff to recover damages for the injury set forth in her declaration. On this point, the decisions in Carey v. Berkshire Railroad Company, 1 Cush., 475, and Nickerson v. Harriman, 38 Maine, 277, and authorities there cited, are conclusive.

¶3But the plaintiff’s counsel contends, that the action is maintainable under R. S. c. 17, § 8, which provides that " any person injured in his comfort, property, or the enjoyment of his estate by a common and public, or a private nuisance, may maintain against the guilty party an action to recover his damages,” &c. And that, by the death of the husband, the wife is " injured in her comfort.”

¶4On an examination of that statute, its origin and its history, we are satisfied that § 8 was intended-to apply to injuries arising from a violation of § 1 of the same statute, prohibiting offensive trades, " which, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive smells, or other annoyances, become injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort, or property of individuals,” &c. And, that offensive smells and comfort, may be considered as correlatiye terms, the one affecting the other only through an atmospheric medium, and not the domestic relations.

¶5Exceptions overruled. — Nonsuit confirmed.

Tenney, C. J., Appleton, May, Davis and Kent, JJ., concurred. '
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