Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/346

326 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. hands of employees of the State, no distinction apparently being made between injuries arising from accident and those caused by negligence. One hundred and fifty dollars have been given to a man for in- juries received in consequence of the firing a salute by the State militia at General Cogswell's funeral ; and $307 for injuries from a spent ball during rifle practice of the Cadets,^ Three thousand five hundred and forty-three dollars were given to a man for dam- ages caused by the placing of infected swine upon his premises by servants of the State in the employ of the manager of the Troy & Greenfield R. R. ;2 ^1200 for loss of house, barn, and contents, destroyed by fire caused by Gypsy Moth employees ;^ ;^300 and an annuity of $300 to the widow of a man killed by careless switching of cars on the Troy & Greenfield R. R. ; * ^1000 to a woman for injuries " received as a result of a collision, occurring without her fault, between a carriage in which she was seated and a vehicle belonging to the Massachusetts Reformatory in charge of one of the convicts." ^ Perhaps the most extraordinary as well as the most recent case is the gift of $2000, in 1898, to a lodging-house keeper for injuries to her house on Mt. Vernon Street, resulting from the tearing down and rebuilding of the State House.^ It was stated in the news- papers that these injuries largely consisted in loss of boarders, caused by the fact that the situation was rendered less desirable on account of the work being done on the State House. The best illustration of this system of gifts is the case in 1891 where ^247.87 were paid to a company for injury to the premises occupied by it, caused by the settling of the floor of a room overhead, occupied by the State, through alleged negligent overloading. The Resolve itself states " the acts by which the floor of said room was caused to settle being of such a character that the Commonwealth was not legally liable for any injury or damage done or caused thereby y "^ There are three great objections to this whole branch of State gratuities and to these payments for losses or injuries caused to, or by, employees of the State. First, as before stated, such payments constitute robbery of the 1 1884, ch. 63; 1887, ch. 70. 2 1886, ch. 74. 8 1894, ch. 96. * 1882, ch. 38. 6 1898, ch. 61. 6 1898, ch. 89. ■^ 1891, ch. 103.