Barton v. Republican Co.

• Decision Date: 03 December 1931
• Citation: 178 N.E. 605,277 Mass. 299
• Parties: BARTON v. REPUBLICAN COMPANY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

277 Mass. 299

178 N.E. 605

BARTON

v.REPUBLICAN COMPANY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampden.

Dec. 3, 1931.

Report from Superior Court, Hampden County; Frederick J. McLeod, Judge.

Action by William Barton against the Republican Company. On report from the superior court.

Judgment for defendant.

George F. Leary and George D. Cummings, both of Springfield, for plaintiff.

John P. Kirby, of Springfield, for defendant.

WAIT, J.

This case is before us upon a report of the trial judge after an order for entry of judgment for the defendant made pursuant to leave reserved under G. L. c. 231, § 120. It is stipulated that if upon all the evidence a jury would have been warranted in finding for the plaintiff, judgment is to enter for the plaintiff in the amount found by the jury; otherwise judgment is to enter for the defendant. All the material evidence is stated in the report.

The essential question is whether the evidence warranted finding that, in the circumstances, the plaintiff stood in such a position that the defendant was liable to him for injuries resulting from the starting of an elevator in a buildingowned and controlled by it due to negligence on its part or on the part of any one for whom it was responsible.

The plaintiff testified as follows: In March of 1928 he arranged with one Myrick, an official of the defendant charged with letting offices in the State Building in Springfield, for the hire of an office. His rent was to begin May 1, but he was at liberty to move in at any time before then. He was given keys to the office. He was asked to avoid bringing in his goods at ‘the lunch hour, and the rush on the elevators.’ On Saturday afternoon, April 14, between one and two o'clock, he went to the building with a truck loaded with furniture to be put in the office. The truck drew up at an entrance on State street. He tried the entrance door there but was unable to open it. He went around to an entrance on Main street where he entered, stepped to an elevator in the corridor, and spoke with the operator, telling him that he had furniture on a van. The operator told him that he would go and see the manager and see that somebody was put on the elevator to take the furniture up for him. The entire first floor was occupied by the Springfield Safe Deposit and Trust Company. Its offices had closed at noon but some employees were still at work there. One of these, known to the plaintiff, opened one of the doors to the company's rooms and showed him through from the corridor opening on Main street to a rear passage communicating with the basement, and opened, also, the door from State street. The plaintiff walked down a stairway to the basement. There he found Sullivan, the engineer, in the engine room. A rear elevator used for freight and passengers ran from this basement, and at the first or street floor served the entrance from State street. He told Sullivan of the furniture in the first...