Readman v. Conway

Decision Date10 March 1879
Citation126 Mass. 374
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
PartiesLaura S. Readman v. Thomas H. Conway & another

Argued November 7, 1878

Essex. Tort for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff from a defect in a platform in front of a building on land owned by the defendants in Lawrence. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Brigham, C. J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendants alleged exceptions, the substance of which appears in the opinion.

Exceptions overruled.

D Saunders & C. G. Saunders, for the defendants.

E. T Burley, for the plaintiff.

Morton J. Endicott & Lord, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Morton, J.

The defendants are the owners of a building, consisting of three shops or tenements, standing forty feet back from the line of Essex Street in Lawrence, and having a wooden platform extending from it to the sidewalk of Essex Street They made oral leases of these shops, each to a separate tenant. The platform had no fences or lines of any kind separating the parts thereof in front of the several shops from each other, but was entirely open, so that persons passed over it in any direction in going to either of the shops. The verdict of the jury establishes the fact that the plaintiff, while in the exercise of due care, was injured by a defect in the platform for which the person whose duty it was to keep it in repair was responsible, the only disputed question which is affected by the exceptions before us being whether her remedy was against the landlords or the tenant. The evidence was conflicting upon the question whether by the terms of the leases the landlords were to keep in repair the whole of the platform, or each tenant was to keep in repair the part in front of his shop.

In this state of the case, the defendants asked the court to instruct the jury as follows: "1. In the absence of an express agreement, on the part of the landlord, to do repairs, the tenant is bound in law to keep the tenement in repair; and he, not the landlord, is responsible for any injury arising from the want of repair. 2. The occupier and not the landlord is bound, as between himself and the public, so far to keep buildings and adjoining structures abutting upon highways in repair, that they may be safe for the use of travellers therein; and, prima facie, such occupier is liable to third persons for damages arising from such defect."

These requests state general propositions of law, which in many cases might be correct and sufficient. But in the case at bar the principal question in dispute was whether the tenants of the shops were the tenants or occupiers of the platform within the meaning of these rules of law. There was evidence which would justify the jury in finding that the platforms were not leased to the several tenants, but that the understanding was that they were constructed and were to be kept open and controlled by the landlords, for the common use of the occupants of all the shops and of the public. If they so found, the tenants would not be liable for defects in the platform, but the responsibility therefor would remain upon the landlords. Kirby v. Boylston Market Association, 14 Gray 249. Milford v. Holbrook, 9 Allen 17. Shipley v. Fifty Associates, 101 Mass....

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    • United States
    • Kansas Supreme Court
    • 25 Enero 1958
    ...them. McGinley v. Alliance Trust Co., 168 Mo. 257, 66 S.W. 153, 56 L.R.A. 334; Looney v. McLean, 129 Mass. 33, 37 Am.Rep. 295; Readman v. Conway, 126 Mass. 374. The facts speak for themselves; the law is so well settled that it is unnecessary to cite other authorities.' 90 Kan. at page 733,......
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    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • 20 Noviembre 1931
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