Case ID: mass_1/html/0109-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

*Ebenezer Adams and Others, versus Peter Hemmenway.
    
      Trespass will not lie for a consequential jury.
    In this case, “ the defendant was attached to answer to the plaintiff in a plea of trespass, for the plaintiffs, at K., on the day of being owners and proprietors of a certain schooner called the Charles, of the burden of-, then and there, on the said day, despatched the said vessel, duly fitted and equipped, under the command of one Charles Adams, master of said vessel, on a voyage for P., in order to bring back a cargo of lumber from said P., and while said vessel was so proceeding on her voyage aforesaid, on the day of aforesaid, about three leagues from the land, to wit, at Plymouth aforesaid, the defendant being then and there sailing in a certain boat or vessel, the name of which is to the plaintiffs unknown, then and there, with force and arms, made an assault on the aforesaid vessel called the Charles, owned by the plaintiffs as aforesaid, and fired and discharged at the said vessel, and master and crew therein, a musket or fire-arm loaded with gunpowder and lead, and with the same grievously and dangerously wounded the said Charles Adams, master of the plaintiffs’ vessel, so that, for the preservation of the life of said Charles Adams, the crew on board the plaintiffs’ vessel were compelled to return therein to K. aforesaid, and the plaintiffs’ intended voyage aforesaid has been broken up and defeated, and the plaintiffs have thereby lost all the freight-money which they might have earned and gained in the intended voyage aforesaid, together with the passage-money for sundry passengers, who had then and there taken and engaged a passage to P. in said vessel; and other outrages the defendant then and * there committed on the plaintiffs’ vessel, against the peace, &c.”
    
      Attorney-General (Sullivan) and Thomas for the plaintiffs.
    
      Parsons and B. Whitman for the defendants. 
    
    
      
       Vide Scott vs. Shepherd, Black. Rep. 893.
    
   Upon hearing the declaration read, the whole Court (Strong, Sedgwick, Sewall, and Thacher, justices) said it would be in vain to go on with the action ; that the action should have been Case, and not Trespass; and that even if a verdict should be found for the plaintiffs, the Court must arrest the judgment.

The plaintiffs discontinued upon payment of costs.

Note. — In an action of assault and battery, brought by the master, Charles Adams against the defendant, (lor the injury done him by the discharge of the musket,) which was tried at this term, the jury found a verdict for the master — 3391 dollar» damages.