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eBook details

• Title: Ruane v. Doyle
• Author : Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Release Date : January 26, 1941
• Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 59 KB

Description

COX, Justice. The plaintiff, as tenant at will, occupied the third story apartment of a three-family house owned by the defendant. The defendant testified that the front stairway led to a landing just outside to door of the plaintiff's apartment, and just above this landing there was a skylight in the roof, 'which skylight existed for the purpose of throwing light down on to the front stairway.' At some time during the plaintiff's tenancy, the defendant repaired this skylight and the roof, and, in order to do so, it was necessary to place ladders and erect a staging on the landing. There was no other way of reaching the roof through the interior. Although that part of the stairway leading from the second to the third floor was a continuation of the front stairway, it was not used by the tenants of the lower apartments. At or about the time when the tenancy began, and during its whole period, all of the treads of the steps were partly covered by rubber mats nailed or screwed to the tops and folded over the edge onto the risers to which they were also nailed or screwed. He further testified that he had control of the exterior of the house and the entrances, and at various times during the plaintiff's tenancy he had made repairs in the house, but not in the hall or stairway area leading from the second floor to the third, and that the tenants on the first and second floors used so much of the stairway as extended to the second floor. The jury could have found that some weeks prior to the plaintiff's injury he observed that the mat on the top step of the stairway was loose, so that it tended to 'buckle' over onto the riser and to slide when stepped upon. About a month before the injury, the plaintiff told the defendant about the condition of the mat, and the latter said that he was going to fix it; that he was going to fix the whole hall and to have the whole of it papered 'right down.' When the plaintiff came home from work, he observed that the mat was 'put back in place; it was pushed over like that (indicating); put back in place, and was nailed down, nailed or screwed.' Thereafter the mat again became loose and slid or 'buckled' forward over the riser. On one occasion, at least, the defendant 'did something about fixing the mat.' On the day of the injury, the plaintiff stepped out of his apartment to the landing for the purpose of putting out an electric light. He was barefooted, and as he stepped forward onto the mat, which was just outside the door, the mat slid forward, causing him to fall down the stairway.

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