Gutowski v. Goldberg

• Decision Date: 06 February 1931
• Docket Number: No. 17.,17.
• Citation: 153 A. 375,9 N.J.Misc. 317
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
• Parties: BENJAMIN GUTOWSKI, PLAINTIFF, v. HYMAN GOLDBERG ET AL., DEFENDANTS

153 A. 375

GUTOWSKI

v. GOLDBERG et al.

No. 17.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Feb. 6, 1931.

Action by Benjamin Gutowski against Hyman Goldberg and others.Verdict for plaintiff.On defendants' rule to show cause.

Rule discharged.

Argued May term, 1930, before GUMMERE, C. J., and TRENCHARD and LLOYD, JJ.

Aaron Heller, of Passaic, for the rule.

Jacob L. Bernstein, of Paterson, opposed.

PER CURIAM.

The defendants were the owners of a tenement house on River street, in the city of Paterson.The plaintiff was a tenant, occupying rooms on the third floor of the building.About half-past 8 in the evening of March 2, 1929, while descending the stairway from the third to the second floor, he fell, owing to the defective condition of the stairway, and received the injuries for which he sued.The hall and stairway were dark; no lights having been lit there.The trial resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff.

The first ground on which we are asked to make the present rule absolute is that the trial court erred in refusing to nonsuit the plaintiff, and also in refusing to. direct a verdict for the defendants.The basis of this contention is that the plaintiff not only knew of the absence of the lights at the time of the accident, but that he also knew that the defendants had previously refused, and continued to refuse, up to the time of the accident, to keep these lights burning during the evening, and that therefore the defendants were not guilty of negligence producing the accident in failing to keep the hall lights on.It is further argued in support of this contention that, admitting the stairway to have been in a defective condition at the time of the accident, this fact did not impose liability upon the landlords, in the absence of knowledge on their part of this condition, unless it appeared that it had continued long enough...