Johnson v. The Lembeck & Betz Eagle Brewing Company

• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: GARRISON, J.
• Citation: Johnson v. Lembeck & Betz Eagle Brewing Co., 68 A. 85, 75 N.J.L. 282 (N.J. 1907)
• Decision Date: 11 November 1907
• Parties: SOPHIA JOHNSON, DEFENDANT IN ERROR, v. THE LEMBECK & BETZ EAGLE BREWING COMPANY, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR

68 A. 85

75 N.J.L. 282

JOHNSON

v. LEMBECK & BETZ EAGLE BREWING CO.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Nov. 19, 1907.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error to Circuit Court.

Action by Sophia Johnson against the Lembeck & Betz Eagle Brewing Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Affirmed.

Argued November term, 1906, before GUMMERE, C. J., and GARRISON, J.

Hudspeth & Carey, for plaintiff in error. Theo. Rurode, for defendant in error.

GARRISON, J. The plaintiff in the action below was a tenant of the defendant in a building occupied by four families, all' of whom as tenants used the hallways and stairs in common. These passageways were carpeted, and the negligence ascribed by the present action to the defendant is the failure to use reasonable care to maintain the safe condition of such passageways in this respect; the concrete case of the plaintiff being that she was thrown down the stairs by reason of a hole in the carpet that had been there for a long time and of which the defendant had been notified. There was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, whereupon the defendant brought this writ of error.

The duty of the plaintiff in error to exercise reasonable care with respect to the safe condition of the common passageways afforded to his tenants is established in this state. Siggins v. McGill, 72 N. J. Law, 263, 62 Atl. 411, 3 L. R. A. (N. S.) 316, 111 Am. St. Rep. 666. In the present case the testimony fully warranted the application of this rule to the plaintiff in error.

All the other questions in the cases were mixed ones of law and fact in the sense that each called for...