Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/363/363mass565.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 10:25:43+00:00

Document:
ANTONIO SABATINELLI vs. DANIEL M. BUTLER (and a companion case).
Present: TAURO, C.J., QUIRICO, BRAUCHER, HENNESSEY, & WILKINS, JJ.
TWO ACTIONS OF TORT. Writs in the Superior Court dated January 8, 1969, and September 11, 1969.
The actions were tried before Beaudreau, J.
Terence F. Riley for the plaintiff.
William C. O'Neill, Jr., for the defendants.
allow[ed] an improper and irresponsible person to have and to use a dangerous instrumentality" and (2) that he "negligently allowed his son . . . to possess and use a gun."
Viewing the evidence most favorable to the plaintiff, the jury could have found that on the night of November 21, 1967, Daniel Butler, without provocation or cause, shot the plaintiff while he was returning home from his place of employment. Daniel testified that "he saw Mr. Sabatinelli walking along the street; that he knew he was a human being, but wasn't too sure it was a man; that he stopped his car, loaded the shotgun, rolled down the window of his car, aimed the gun at the plaintiff's back and pulled the trigger and the gun went off; that when the pellets hit Mr. Sabatinelli, he cried out, and with that, the defendant got scared and drove away; that about two weeks later, he went down South and came back around the middle of January, 1967 [sic, should be 1968], and went to the police and told them what he did; . . . that in May, 1968, he pleaded guilty . . . to assault with a dangerous weapon . . . [and] assault and battery with a dangerous weapon . . . [and] received a sentence of seven to ten years in Walpole."
directing a verdict for Daniel on the negligence count on the ground that there was evidence that Daniel had failed to exercise reasonable care in handling the gun and that Daniel's violation of certain penal statutes [Note 2] constituted evidence of his negligence. We disagree.
From their verdict on the first count, it is clear that the jury found that Daniel "unlawfully" shot the plaintiff. The parties appear to have proceeded upon the assumption that the first count against Daniel alleges that he intentionally and deliberately shot the plaintiff. It would have made no difference even if the judge had proceeded upon the assumption that "unlawful shooting" in the circumstances only encompassed wanton, wilful or reckless conduct, since "[w]anton or reckless conduct is the legal equivalent of intentional conduct." Commonwealth v. Welansky, 316 Mass. 383, 401. Therefore, the jury's verdict on the first count indicates a finding that Daniel shot the plaintiff deliberately and intentionally. Having reached such a conclusion, the issue is whether, on the evidence, the jury could properly have found, further, that the defendant's conduct was negligent. We conclude that the jury could not properly reach such a verdict.
expressions used instead of negligent or grossly negligent. They express a difference in the degree of risk and in the voluntary taking of risk so marked, as compared with negligence, as to amount substantially and in the eyes of the law to a difference in kind." Commonwealth v. Welansky, 316 Mass. 383, 399. See Banks v. Braman, 188 Mass. 367, 368-369; Freeman v. United Fruit Co. 223 Mass. 300, 302; Prondecka v. Turners Falls Power & Elec. Co. 238 Mass. 239, 242; McIntyre v. Converse, 238 Mass. 592, 594; Isaacson v. Boston, Worcester & N. Y. St. Ry. 278 Mass. 378, 387-388.
In shooting the plaintiff, the defendant Daniel may well have violated various penal statutes. But when such violations result from deliberate and intentional conduct, they cannot be considered as evidence of negligence. In this respect the violation of the statute cannot be treated as different and apart from the conduct that constitutes the violation. The judge, therefore, properly directed a verdict for Daniel on the second count.
2. The plaintiff argues that the judge erred in directing verdicts for Raymond Butler on both counts against him. Although we believe that the counts improperly allege that the same conduct is both wilful and negligent, we have examined the record to discover whether the essential elements of either count are supported.
in the army. He was aware that his son had been in some "trouble" in the army and, although he did not know the nature of the "trouble," he knew that his son had been asked to leave the army early. Raymond Butler testified that after returning home, his son had been to see a psychiatrist four times. He had encouraged his son to continue psychiatric treatment but the boy had refused. The father observed that Daniel would sometimes come home drunk and was unable to keep a job for any length of time. He had given his son a B B gun as a present and he knew that Daniel kept guns in the cellar of their home which he sometimes used when shooting in the woods nearby, but he testified that he had no knowledge of any violent acts carried out by his son while at school or since returning home from the army.
In Caldwell v. Zaher, 344 Mass. 590, 592, we stated that the "duty of parental discipline arises when the parent knows or should know of the child's propensity for the type of harmful conduct complained of, and has an opportunity to take reasonable corrective measures." See Restatement 2d: Torts, Section 316, pp. 123-124; Prosser, Torts (4th ed.) 872-873; Harper and Kime, The Duty to Control the Conduct of Another, 43 Yale L. J. 886, 893-895; annotation, 68 A. L. R. 2d 782.
on their way home from a drinking bout, but Daniel stated that he had not told his father about the incident.
The son testified he had a license for hunting on public land and that he had four guns in all, two .22's, a pellet gun and a shotgun. [Note 4] He stated that he kept the shotgun in the glove compartment of his car. While in high school, he had attended a four week course on how to handle a gun and had hunted regularly from the age of sixteen years until he went into the army. Although his father had never forbidden Daniel to use guns, he had told him on many occasions that guns were dangerous and had warned him about their use.
Over a number of years, the father had observed his son take a gun and go hunting without mishap. He had properly warned Daniel about the danger of guns. In such circumstances, where there was no evidence that the father knew or should have known of his son's misuse or propensity for misuse of guns or other weapons, the father cannot be held negligent or wilfully irresponsible. Norlin v. Connolly, 336 Mass. 553, 554. See DePasquale v. Dello Russo, 349 Mass. 655, 659; Martin v. Barrett, 120 Cal. App. 2d 625, 628-629; Pepper v. Hoffecker, 192 Atl. 2d 213, 215-216 (Super. Ct. Del.); Klop v. Vanden Bos, 263 Mich. 27, 29. The circumstances of this case are to be distinguished from cases where there was evidence that the defendant knew or should have known that it was unsafe to allow the child to have or to use a gun. Sousa v. Irome, 219 Mass. 273. Gudziewski v. Stemplesky, 263 Mass. 103.
reckless or vicious behavior. Cf. Caldwell v. Zaher, 344 Mass. 590, 592; Capps v. Carpenter, 129 Kans. 462, 464-466; Meers v. McDowell, 110 Ky. 926, 927-929; Charlton v. Jackson, 183 Mo. App. 613, 620; Davis v. Mack, 15 Ohio Op. 4, 5 (Ohio C. P.).
3. After Daniel's arrest, he was sent to Grafton State Hospital for observation. His parents visited the hospital and Mrs. Butler filled in, and signed, a medical questionnaire concerning her son. She discussed the questions with her husband and he agreed to some, but not all, of the answers. The plaintiff attempted to have the questionnaire admitted as a hospital record under G. L. c. 233, Section 79, as amended through St. 1959, c. 200. From a very confusing bill of exceptions it seems that the questionnaire was also offered to impeach the father's testimony.
The plaintiff argues that the judge erred in excluding portions of the questionnaire that relate to Raymond's knowledge of his son's condition prior to the shooting. The hospital questionnaire was shown to Raymond Butler several times during the trial and he replied to questions after reading his wife's written answers.
[Note 1] General Laws c. 231, Section 113, as amended through St. 1971, c. 843, Section 13, states that a bill of exceptions "shall be reduced to writing in a summary manner." The plaintiff's consolidated substitute bill of exceptions is extremely lengthy, repetitious and unnecessarily interspersed with long passages from the transcript and with other irrelevant matters. Counsel proceeds at his own and his client's peril in tendering such a bill of exceptions. Graustein, petitioner, 305 Mass. 568. Mottla, Civil Practice (3d ed.) Section 1160, pp. 241-243. The court below must insist on compliance with the statute's requirements before approving a bill of exceptions.
[Note 2] In his brief the plaintiff suggests that Daniel violated G. L. c. 269, Section 10, as amended through St. 1957, c. 688, Section 23 (carrying a dangerous weapon), G. L. c. 269, Section 12D (carrying a gun on a public way), and G. L. c. 265, Section 15A (assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon).
[Note 4] The record indicates that the plaintiff was shot with a "20-gauge shotgun."
[Note 5] The questionnaire asked for details to be supplied "[i]f patient has threatened or attacked anyone." In replying to this part of the questionnaire, Mrs. Butler wrote, "[n]ot to our knowledge."

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