Crea v. Stunzenas
| Decision Date | 04 May 1962 |
| Citation | 344 Mass. 265,182 N.E.2d 141 |
| Parties | Margaret CREA v. Leonas STUNZENAS et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Lovell S. Spaulding, Jr., Boston, for plaintiff.
Sturtevant Burr, Boston (James J. Myers, Belmont, with him), for defendants.
Before WILKINS, C. J., and WHITTEMORE, CUTTER, KIRK and SPIEGEL, JJ.
This is an action of tort to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff, a tenant of the first floor of a building owned by the defendants, when she fell upon an outside stairway platform. A verdict was returned for the plaintiff and the case is here on the defendants' exception to the denial of their motion for a directed verdict.
The defendants agreed that they were the owners of the premises in question on the date of the accident; that the plaintiff was a tenant; that the defendants were in control of the common stairways and passageways; and 'that the plaintiff sent a sufficient snow and ice notice, which was received by the defendants within the time required.'
We state the facts most favorable to the plaintiff. The plaintiff had been a tenant of the third floor apartment of the defendants' building prior to 1956 and in February, 1956, she and her family moved to an apartment on the first floor. There were porches at the rear of the house, one above the other, at the first, second, and third floors. There was a platform at the rear of the plaintiff's apartment. This platform was "in back, coming down from the stairways' and there were four stairs going from the platform to the ground.'
It had been snowing on March 16, 1958, but had stopped snowing at about 9 P.M. The plaintiff went on the porch at about 12:15 A.M. to take her dog out and as she put her right foot down to step on the platform 'it hit something and it just skidded under * * * [her].' She noticed a 'skid mark' where she had fallen and there was 'snow and ice and slush.' Water was dripping from the porches above onto a 'little mound of ice.'
The plaintiff did not notice the condition of the porches before moving to the first floor in February, 1956. About eight months after moving she noticed 'that the piazza was sagging a little toward the beam above where the platform was' and that any time it rained 'you could notice the water dripping from the piazza onto the platform and steps.'
After the accident, 'there was a new beam and a new platform fixed on the back porch' and some posts supporting the porches were replaced.
With respect to common areas used by tenants over which the landlord...
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