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99 Mass. 395

Paige v. Smith

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1868-03-15

Contract for the value of fifty-five bales of hay. In the superior court facts were agreed in substance as follows : “ The defendants were originally trustees of the Vermont Central Railroad, under the first mortgage bonds; and they were, prior to the year 1861, operating the Vermont Central Railroad under a possession taken under said bonds, and the Vermont and Canada Railroad under a lease, or supposed lease.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1868-03-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1938

13 state decisions

8018681870188018901900191019201930decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Foster, J.

¶1The supreme court of Vermont, in an action against these defendants, held that, “ if in fact they were common carriers over a line of railroad, it could be no defence to an action at law for a breach of duty or obligation arising out of business entrusted to them in that relation, that they were running and managing the line of railroad as receivers under the appointment of the court of chancery.” Blumenthal v. Brainerd, 38 Verm. 408.

¶2It is impossible for the courts of this Commonwealth to accord to these defendants an exemption from the ordinary common law liabilities of common carriers, more extensive than they are allowed in the state in which they were appointed receivers, and in which the accident occurred. Under these circumstances, the ordinary rule for which the defendants contend, that receivers are amenable solely to the court by which they are appointed, is inapplicable. Exceptions sustained.

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