Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/445

 418

The Green Bag

and injured because of overcrowding. In Lobner v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 101 Pac. Rep. 463, defendant contended that plaintiff had voluntarily exposed himself to danger by riding on the platform of a crowded car, a danger which he had the best oppor tunity to discover and appreciate. The Kan sas Supreme Court held, however, that it was not contributory negligence per se to ride on the platforms of crowded cars. The practice of inviting and permitting passengers to ride on the platforms of street cars is so common that it cannot be held, as a matter of law, that a passenger in doing so is guilty of contributory negligence. One who rides on a crowded car assumes the inconvenience resulting from its crowded condition, but the company is not, for that reason, relieved from the responsibility of using due care for the safety of passengers invited upon the car. Pilots. Waters Which are Boundaries Be tween States—Federal and State Regulation— Scope of Louisiana Statute. U. S. That the state of Louisiana may make it a criminal offense for a pilot not duly qualified under its laws to pilot a foreign vessel from the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, Louisiana, although he holds a license issued under the authority of the state of Mississippi, was the ruling of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Leech v. Louisiana, decided May 17 (L. ed. adv. sheets Oct. term 1908, p. 552). For New Orleans, although upon the Mississippi river, is not "situate upon waters which are the boundary between two states," within the meaning of U. S. Rev. Stat. §4236, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 2903, authorizing the master of any vessel coming into or going out of any port so situated to employ any pilot duly licensed or authorized by the laws of either of the states bounded on such waters to pilot a vessel to or from such port, the limit of the waters so referred to being the point at which they cease to be a boundary between the two states. Police Power. Compulsory Repaying of Unsanitary Passageway Confiscatory— Proper Manner of Abating Nuisance. Mass. Where a private passageway in the crowded business section of Boston was deemed un healthy by the city board of health, because of the accumulation of stagnant water in pools, and the board had ordered the owners to repave it at their own expense, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts held that a statute

(St. 1894, c. 119) which under its most liberal construction confers the arbitrary power to compel repavement of the road for a perma nent object, instead of abatement of the nuisance "in any proper manner as the neces sity of the occasion may demand" is uncon stitutional. "Such a construction would sanction an unreasonable restriction upon the rights of the citizen in the ownership of and use of real property as they stood at common law." Board of Health v. Minot, decided June 25. Proximate Cause. Death Due to Suicidal Intent—Employer's Liability Not Sustained. Ind. A helper employed about an unguarded nail machine was severely cut in the per formance of his duty. For nearly a year after the accident he seemed to have lost his reason. Then he was found one day in a corn field with his throat cut — beyond a doubt his own act. In Brown v. American Steel & Wire Co., 88 N. E. Rep. 80, appellant sought to recover from the employer of decedent for his death, asserting that the injuries received from the unguarded machine were the proximate cause thereof. The Indiana Appellate Court held that the facts strongly indicated that decedent had a mind capable pf conceiving a purpose of taking his life, as well as knowledge of the means to effect his purpose. The act of suicide, for which the employer was not responsible was the proximate cause of death, and not the injury inflicted by the unguarded nail machine. Public Morals. Swedenborgian Doctrines Not Immoral— Public Policy Not Opposed by Devise. Penn. In an opinion reversing the Orphans' Court of Lancaster County, the Pennsylvania Su preme Court decided June 22 that the teach ings of Emanuel Swedenborg, founder of the Church of the New Jerusalem, were not in derogation of the laws of Pennsylvania or repugnant to public policy, thus overruling the decision noted in 21 Green Bag, p. 253 (May, '09). Frederick John Kramph of Lan caster, Penn., who died in 1858, left $35,000 to seven trustees for an academy in which the Swedenborgian doctrine should be taught. Mrs. Eva T. Appel of Lancaster, his grand daughter, started proceedings to get the money, asserting that the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg are in derogation of the laws of