Leydecker v. Brintnall

• Decision Date: 02 March 1893
• Citation: 33 N.E. 399,158 Mass. 292
• Parties: LEYDECKER v. BRINTNALL.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

158 Mass. 292

33 N.E. 399

LEYDECKER v. BRINTNALL.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

March 2, 1893

Defendant was a livery stable keeper, and owned two estates and buildings, Nos. 35 and 37, on Chapman street, in that part of Boston formerly Charlestown. There was a passageway or space about three or four feet wide between these two buildings, which was used solely as an entrance from the street to the rooms above the ground floor of the building numbered 35 on said street. There was a stairway leading from a point within said space about 3 inches from the street within the defendant's line on one side of said space and about 18 inches on the other side. This triangular space was bricked over on the same level with the sidewalk in front of said building without any line of demarcation between the same and the sidewalk, but was within the defendant's line of ownership as shown by his deed. The lines of his deed ran to Chapman street, and the legal line of Chapman street includes part of defendant's buildings, but does not include this space in question. The stairway above mentioned leads to the second story of the building numbered 35, ending there with a landing and doorway. The sidewalk in front of said building was brick and the triangular space between the street line and the first step of said stairway was also brick. The injury was alleged to have been caused by a defect or want of repair in the bricked paving in the triangular space near the first step of said stairway. There were two water conductors, one on each side of the space before mentioned, attached to each of the buildings owned by the defendant, which conducted the water from the roofs of said buildings to the ground, one of which discharged water upon said bricked triangular space and the other upon the sidewalk within a foot of said space. The stairway which led from the passageway to the second story ended there at a landing and doorway. A hall led from this doorway, at right angles, across the buildings; and the stairs leading to the third and fourth floors started from the further end of the hall, on the inside of the building. From this hall a door opened into the front office, leased by Wheeler, hereinafter referred to, on one side, and on the other side of said entry a door opened into two large rooms which were occupied or controlled by the defendant. These with the front office and entry, comprised all of the second floor. The defendant leased to one Wheeler the front office on the second floor of said building No. 35, with the third and fourth floors entire. The premises leased included all the rooms reached by said stairway and hall, except the two rooms occupied and used by the defendant as above stated. These two rooms were a harness room and hayloft on the second floor, and were reached by the stairway and hall above referred to, and there was also access to them directly from defendant's stable, which included the ground floor of both buildings, by means of a hanging step ladder, between the part of the premises where the horses were, in the rear of No. 35, and said hayloft above it. Defendant's lessee Wheeler, sublet one of the rooms he leased in said building to tenants, and occupied the rest of the leased premises. He had about 50 employes. The plaintiff was one of Wheeler's employes, and had occasion to use said outside stairway and passageway in entering and leaving his place of employment. The evidence of the plaintiff tended to show that at noon on the 25th of September, 1888, the plaintiff, in the performance of his duties, and in the exercise of due care, was descending said outside stairway to the passageway and street; that as he stepped from the lower step of said stairway upon the passageway, the bricks in the passageway, within...