Cases on Public Service, Common Carriers and Innkeepers.

PART I

THE LAW OF PUBLIC SERVICE.

CHAPTER I.

THE BASES OF THE DUTIES OF PUBLIC

SERVICE.

Section 1.

THE COMMON CALLINGS.

ANONYMOUS.

1

Y. B. 19 H. VI 49, p1. 5. 1441 NEWTON, C. J. My horse is ill, and I come to a horse-doctor for advice, and he tells me that one of his horses had a similar trouble, that he applied a certain medicine, and that he will do the same for my horse, and does so, and the horse dies; shall the plaintiff have an action? I say, No.

PASTON, J. You have not shown that he is a common surgeon to cure such horses, and so, although he killed your horse by his medicines, you shall have no action against him without an assumpsit. NEWTON, C. J. If I have a sore on my hand, and he applies a medicine to my heel, by which negligence my hand is maimed, still I shall not have an action unless he undertook to cure me.2

1 The case as here given is taken from Professor J. B. Ames' article on The History of Assumpsit, in 2 Harvard Law Review, 1, 3.— ED. 2" If. one saw fit to authorize another to come into contact with his person or property, and damage ensued, there was, without more, no tort. The person injured took the risk of all injurious consequences, unless the other expressly assumed the risk himself, or unless the peculiar nature of one's calling imposed a customary duty to act with reasonable skill.” J. B. Ames, The History of Assumpsit, 2 Harvard Law Review, 1, 3.