Chipman v. Nat'l Sav. Bank
| Decision Date | 14 January 1942 |
| Citation | 23 A.2d 922 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | CHIPMAN v. NATIONAL SAV. BANK. |
Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; O'Sullivan, Judge.
Action by Edward S. Chipman against the National Savings Bank for personal injuries allegedly caused by defendant's negligence, and tried to a jury. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.
Error and new trial ordered.
Before MALTBIE, C. J., and AVERY, BROWN, JENNINGS, and ELLS, JJ.
Joseph B. Morse, of New Haven, for appellant (defendant).
Elmer W. Ryan, of New Haven (Thomas J. Ryan, of New Haven, on the brief), for appellee (plaintiff).
The plaintiff brought this action to recover for personal injuries suffered when, by reason of the giving way of some boards over an opening in the floor of a bedroom in a tenement he had rented from the defendant, he fell partly through the opening. The complaint alleged that the claimed defect was within the tenement the plaintiff had rented, and that at the time he rented it the defendant had agreed to make repairs and also that it had in fact a short time before the accident made repairs to the boards over the opening; and it further alleged that the defendant was negligent, first, in permitting the floor to remain in a defective and dangerous condition, and, second, in so repairing it that it was left in such a condition.
The trial court in submitting the case to the jury charged them as to the elements necessary to be established to support a recovery upon either of the bases alleged. The plaintiff claimed to have proved that a representative of the defendant in charge of its properties directed some plumbers, who had been employed by it to repair a furnace in the cellar, to make repairs also to the covering over the opening; that one of them did so, putting a new cleat on one side and raising the covering, which had been lower than the rest of the floor of the tenement, so that it was level with it. The defendant, on the other hand, claimed to have proved that the workmen made no repairs to the covering of the opening into which the plaintiff fell, although, without any authority from it, they did make slight repairs to the covering of an opening in a different room. The trial court submitted two interrogatories to the jury asking whether repairs were made to the opening into which the plaintiff fell and, if so, whether they were made by order of the defendant's representative; the jury answered both questions in the affirmative. The nature of the repairs claimed by the plaintiff was such as materially to alter the conditions, and the question whether the plaintiff might have recovered on the basis of the situation before the repairs were made need not be considered. We therefore discuss the charge only as it relates to the liability of the defendant upon the basis that it made repairs to the covering over the opening.
Upon this issue, the court charged the jury that the plaintiff could recover if he was not contributorily negligent and the defendant "made repairs to this particular register hole, and left it in an unsafe condition, and if its act of leaving it in an unsafe condition was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury"; or, restating the matter, if the defendant "made a repair to this register hole and made it in a negligent fashion, and if that failure to remedy it properly was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff's injuries." In another portion of the charge, the court stated that the defendant would be bound if the plumber was ordered to make the repairs as the plaintiff claimed and the act of the plumber "was a negligent act, that is, one which left the hole in a not reasonably safe condition." Its last words upon this phase of the case were: "On the second theory the plaintiff is entitled to recover if you reach the conclusion that the defendant, through a duly authorized agent, had voluntarily made repairs to the register hole and left it in a dangerous condition, and if that condition was a proximate cause or a substantial factor of the plaintiff's injury, and that the plaintiff was free from contributory negligence."
In such a situation as this the agreement of the defendant to make repairs or its voluntary act in undertaking to do so is the basis out of which a duty to exercise care to guard against injury to the plaintiff would arise, but it in no way measures the extent of that duty. If in either way the duty is found to exist the plaintiff cannot recover without proving the necessary elements to establish negligence on the defendant's part. Dean v. Hershowitz, 119 Conn. 398, 409, 177 A. 262. The measure of the defendant's duty would be to use reasonable care to make the floor...
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City of Bridgeport v. Barbour-Daniel Electronics, Inc.
...is one separate from that of every other month. Corrigan v. Antupit, 131 Conn. 71, 76, 37 A.2d 697 [1944]; Chipman v. National Savings Bank, 128 Conn. 493, 497, 23 A.2d 922 [1942]; Williams v. Apothecaries Hall Co., 80 Conn. 503, 506, 69 A. 12 [1908]. For each month, therefore, there must b......
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Grenier v. Comm'r of Transp.
...In addition, this court has recognized the voluntary assumption of duty in other contexts. For example, in Chipman v. National Savings Bank, 128 Conn. 493, 495–96, 23 A.2d 922 (1942), this court concluded that a landlord who voluntarily undertakes to make repairs can be held liable if he ne......
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Maffucci v. Royal Park Ltd. Partnership
...650 A.2d 153 (1994). Contained within the first element, duty, there are two distinct considerations. See Chipman v. National Savings Bank, 128 Conn. 493, 495-96, 23 A.2d 922 (1942). First, it is necessary to determine the existence of a duty, and then, if one is found, it is necessary to e......
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Masterson v. Atherton
...or of the nonperformance of a claimed obligation to repair the furnace, under the rule of cases such as Chipman v. National Savings Bank, 128 Conn. 493, 496, 23 A.2d 922, and DesMarchais v. Daly, 135 Conn. 623, 625, 67 A.2d 549. As far as the structural defects, such as the proximity of the......