Monahan v. City of Worcester
Cases that cite this one
15 later published cases cite this decision.
- Southern Pac. Co. v. Hetzer (8th Cir. 1905)
- Huntt v. McNamee (4th Cir. 1905)
- Olsen v. North Pacific Lumber Co. (9th Cir. 1900)
- Baltimore & O. R. v. Camp (6th Cir. 1897)
- Park v. New York Cent. & H. R. Railroad (New York Supreme Court 1895)
- Leone v. Doran (Mass. 1973)
- Jordan v. McCourt (W. Va. 1950)
- Alexander v. Ritchie (W. Va. 1949)
- Palmer v. Coyle (Mass. 1905)
- McCarty v. Ritch (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1901)
- Park v. . N.Y. Central H.R.R.R. Co. (N.Y. 1898)
- Park v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad (N.Y. 1898)
- Marrinan v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1897)
- Gier v. Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Co. (Cal. 1895)
- Driscoll v. City of Fall River (Mass. 1895)
This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.
Opinion of the Court
The offer of the plaintiff to show that McLoughlin “ xvas generally reputed to be infirm in the senses of sight and hearing and in physical strength,” was made for the purpose of proving that the defendant either knew of these infirmities, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have known of them, if the jury found from other evidence that McLoughlin was infirm in these respects. For this purpose, in our opinion, the evidence was competent. The master is bound to use reasonable care in selecting his servants, and if a person is incompetent for the work he is employed to do, the fact that he is generally reputed in the community to want those qualities which are necessary for the proper performance of the work certainly has some tendency to show that the master would have found out that the servant xvas incompetent, if proper means had been taken to ascertain the qualifications of the servant. We cannot say that it may not be a matter of common repute in a community that a man is physically weak, and is partially blind and deaf. Gilman v. Eastern Railroad, 13 Allen, 433.
Exceptions sustained.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.