Landers v. Brooks
| Decision Date | 29 November 1926 |
| Parties | LANDERS v. BROOKS et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Report from Superior Court, Middlesex County; P. M. Keating, Judge.
Action of tort by Abbie Landers against Shirley F. Brooks and others, trustees, for injuries received on a fire escape. Directed verdict for defendant, and case reported on stipulation. Judgment for defendants on verdict.
H. R. Donaghue, of Boston, for plaintiff.
Badger, Pratt, Doyle & Badger, L. C. Doyle and John J. Sullivan, all of Boston, for defendants.
The plaintiff with her husband and family occupied an apartment in a four-story building owned by the defendants. There were two apartments on each floor. There were no rear stairs, and no rear entrance to the building except to the apartments on the ground floor. The apartments above the ground floor could not be reached by this entrance. ‘There was a fire escape on the back of the building,’ with platforms on the second, third and fourth floors. A window in the plaintiff's apartment was opposite the third floor platform. The stairway of the fire escape led from the fourth floor platform to the third and from there to the second. From the second floor platform, which was about 12 feet above the ground, a ladder 2 or 3 feet long extended toward the ground. The platforms were 12 or 14 feet long, ‘and ran by certain windows of the inside flats,’ entrance to the fire escape being through these windows.
The plaintiff's husband hired the flat on the third floor in 1910. The plaintiff testified that, when ‘she and her husband’ hired the tenement ‘some 17 years ago,’ the fire escape seemed to be in good condition; that she had never gone upon the fire escape previous to the accident, but on one occasion she had seen her son on the platform opposite to her window; ‘that she had taken him off * * * and warned him to keep off;’ that on the day of the accident she saw her child, who was then nine years old, on the fire escape near the second floor landing; that he was crying and she thought he was in danger; that she went through the window of her apartment on to the platform of the fire escape and started to descend, when two of the steps gave way under her weight and she fell to the second floor platform; ‘that there was no way she could reach her boy except by going through the window and down the fire escape.’ She further testified on cross-examination that this was the first time she had used...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Cohen v. Davies
...premises, may be an invitee, trespasser or a mere licensee. See Noonan v. O'Hearn, 216 Mass. 583, 104 N.E. 376;Landers v. Brooks, 258 Mass. 1, 154 N.E. 265, 49 A.L.R. 562;Lally v. A. W. Perry, Inc., 277 Mass. 463, 179 N.E. 155. The record in the case at bar in this respect discloses the bar......
-
Aldworth v. F.W. Woolworth Co.
...respect to a fire escape attached thereto when such fire escape is used for other purposes remain as at common law. Landers v. Brooks, 258 Mass. 1, 3, 154 N.E. 265, 49 A.L.R. 562;Rice v. Rosenberg, 266 Mass. 520, 523, 165 N.E. 667. And the evidence in this case did not warrant a finding tha......
-
Chelefou v. Springfield Inst. for Sav.
...of Boston, 243 Mass. 380, 383, 137 N.E. 656. See, also, Eisenhauer v. Ceppi, 238 Mass. 458, 461, 131 N.E. 184;Landers v. Brooks, 258 Mass. 1, 3, 154 N.E. 265, 49 A.L.R. 562;Cerricola v. Darena, 266 Mass. 267, 269, 165 N.E. 124;Stern v. Swartz, 283 Mass. 436, 186 N.E. 584. There is nothing i......
-
Aldworth v. F.W. Woolworth Co.
... ... escape attached thereto when such fire escape is used for ... other purposes remain as at common law. Landers v ... Brooks, 258 Mass. 1, 3, 154 N.E. 265, 49 A.L.R. 562; ... Rice v. Rosenberg, 266 Mass. 520, 523, 165 N.E ... 667.And the evidence in this ... ...