Minnesota Supreme Court, 1881

Nash v. Tousley

Minnesota Supreme Court · Decided May 6, 1881 · Berry

28 Minn. 5; 8 N.W. 875; 1881 Minn. LEXIS 182 (Minnesota Reports)

Counsel

Seaarave Smith, for appellant., Cadwdl & Everett, for respondent.

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Citation treatment has not been reviewed for this case. The notes below come from the citation graph and the Minnesota Revisor's amendment records, not from a review of how later courts treated this decision.

(as of 9/30/2026)

Last cited by a Minnesota appellate court in 2024, among the opinions in this site’s citation index.

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Cases that cite this one

12 later published cases cite this decision.

St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Needham (8th Cir. 1892)
Loegering v. County of Todd (D. Minn. 1960)
Cashman v. Hedberg (Minn. 1943)
Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Lenahan (Okla. 1913)
Fithian v. St. Louis & S. F. Ry. Co. (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Arkansas 1911)
Aho v. Jesmore (Minn. 1907)
Harshman v. Northern Pacific Railway Co. (N.D. 1905)
Major v. Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Co. (Iowa 1902)
Shaira Mattingly v. American Family Insurance, Kathleen Plasch (Minn. Ct. App. 2024)
Pueblo v. Betancourt (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico 1920)
Scheffler v. Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Co. (Minn. 1884)
Rugland v. Anderson (Minn. 1883)

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

Berry, J.

“A cause of action arising out of an injury to the person dies with the person of either party, except as provided in the next section.” Gen. St. 1878, c. 77, § 1. “When death is caused by the wrongful act or omission of any party, the personal representatives of the deceased may maintain an action, if he might have maintained an action, had he lived, for an injury caused by the same act or omission; but the action shall be commenced within two years after the act or omission by which the death was caused. The. dam*6ages thereon cannot exceed $5,000, and the amount recovered is to be for the exclusive benefit of the widow and next of kin, to be distributed to them in the same proportions as the personal property of the deceased person.” Id. § 2. The right of action thus given was wholly unknown to our law before the passage of these provisions of statute. It is, therefore, altogether a creature of the statute, and must be enforced (if at all) as the statute enacts, and not otherwise. The action to enforce it must, therefore, be brought by the “personal representatives of the deceased” — that is to say, by his executor or administrator. Atkinson v. Duffy, 16 Minn. 45, and authorities cited; Jones v. Tainter, 15 Minn. 512; Abbott’s Law Dict. “Represent.”

Order affirmed.

Case-law data current through September 30, 2026. Source: CourtListener bulk data.