Coan v. Adams

Decision Date07 June 1955
Citation127 N.E.2d 198,332 Mass. 654
PartiesCecelia A. COAN v. Roger E. ADAMS and another.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

James P. Moriarty, Springfield, for defendant.

Henry A. Moran, Jr., Springfield, for plaintiff.

Before QUA, C. J., and RONAN, WILKINS, SPALDING and COUNIHAN, JJ.

RONAN, Justice.

The defendants, the owners of an apartment building, excepted to the refusal of the judge to grant their motion to direct a verdict in their favor in this action of tort brought by the plaintiff to recover damages alleged to have been sustained by her as she was leaving the premises after visiting a tenant who occupied one of the apartments.

There was evidence that the plaintiff's nephew, one Ferraro, and his wife had occupied a first-floor apartment in this four-story building for nearly a year before the accident which occurred at about nine thirty o'clock daylight saving time on June 8, 1951. The plaintiff had entered the apartment by the front entrance and had gone there for the purpose of making arrangements for transportation for herself to the wedding of another nephew which was to be held on the following day. She left through the rear or kitchen door which directly led to a porch which was used in common by twenty-one other tenants. After walking five or ten steps along the porch she came to a wooden stairway consisting of four steps which led to a cement platform twenty-seven inches square. Leading from this platform were the cellar stairs which were more or less a continuation of the stairs leading from the porch to the platform. Her short journey along the porch was lighted pretty well by the light from the kitchen. As she descended the stairway leading to the platform the real darkness started and it was pitch dark when she reached the platform, and she exclaimed to Mrs. Ferraro that it was so dark there that one could break a leg. The plaintiff took one step toward what she assumed to be the yard and fell into the cellar.

There was a light attached to one of the posts which apparently was one of the supports to the upper piazzas but this light was out at the time of the accident and, although designed to be operated automatically, it had not been working for a week before the accident.

This rear entrance served as an entrance to and exit from apartments other than the one occupied by Ferraro. There is no question that it remained in the possession and control of the defendants. The plaintiff makes no complaint of physical defect or dangers arising out of the structural arrangements of the locus of her accident. The only breach of duty of which she complains was the negligent failure of the defendants to illuminate the place of the accident by the fixture that they maintained there. In the absence of an express or implied agreement to furnish light in a common passageway or a statute or ordinance imposing that duty upon a landlord, there is no obligation upon a landlord to do so. Polansky v. Heller, 241 Mass. 484, 135 N.E. 572; Carey v. Klein, 259 Mass. 90, 155 N.E. 868.

The jury adopting the view of the evidence most favorable to the plaintiff could find that the defendants impliedly assumed an obligation to light the premises. In the first place it could be inferred that it was a matter of good business to attract tenants and keep their apartments occupied by lighting the stairway leading to the porch for those who had occasion to use the yard as an incident to the occupancy of their apartments. In the next place, it could be found that the operation of the light was under the control of the defendant's janitor. There was no evidence that it could be controlled by a pull chain or push button within the reach of any tenant or that the current for its operation was attached to the meter of any tenant, but on the contrary the evidence was that it was operated...

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6 cases
  • Cohen v. Elephant Rock Beach Club, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts
    • December 3, 2014
    ...twice on the issue of contributory negligence, see Brogie v. Vogel, 348 Mass. 619, 205 N.E.2d 234, 237 (1965), and Coan v. Adams, 332 Mass. 654, 127 N.E.2d 198, 200 (1955). Perhaps more importantly, the O'Brien opinion does not indicate whether the defendant owned or otherwise had a legal r......
  • Stokes v. Old Colony Trust Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • November 29, 1968
    ...Falden v. Gordon, 333 Mass. 135, 138, 128 N.E.2d 778. Cf. Sullivan v. Hamacher, 339 Mass. 190, 193, 158 N.E.2d 301. Cf. also Coan v. Adams, 332 Mass. 654, 656--657. The judge reasonably excluded testimony about the lights several days before and after the accident. See Burwick v. McClure, 3......
  • National Paper & Cordage Co. v. Atlantic Carton Corp.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • June 7, 1955
  • Mikaloros v. Stamatouras
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • March 31, 1965
    ...of the tenant's wife; and that there was a causal connection between the failure to light the hallway and the injury. Coan v. Adams, 332 Mass. 654, 656-657, 127 N.E.2d 198. Denny v. Burbeck, 333 Mass. 310, 312, 130 N.E.2d 542. Sullivan v. Hamacher, 339 Mass. 190, 193-195, 158 N.E.2d 301. Ac......
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