Longwood Towers Corp. v. Doyle

• Decision Date: 31 May 1929
• Citation: 267 Mass. 368,166 N.E. 634
• Parties: LONGWOOD TOWERS CORPORATION v. DOYLE.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

267 Mass. 368

166 N.E. 634

LONGWOOD TOWERS CORPORATION

v.DOYLE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

May 31, 1929.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Suffolk County; Weed, Judge.

Action by the Longwood Towers Corporation against Marie R. Doyle. On defendant's exceptions after verdict for plaintiff. Exceptions overruled.C. E. Fay and E. S. MacMillan, both of Boston, for plaintiff.

I. D. Farquhar, of Boston, for defendant.

PIERCE, J.

This is an action of contract brought by the plaintiff or assignee of an indenture of lease, executed by Alden Park Manor, Inc., in Brookline, a Massachusetts corporation, and Marie R. Doyle, on April 28, 1925. The declaration is in two counts, both for the same cause of action. Count one alleges rent due under a lease, a copy of which is annexed to the declaration; and count two alleges rent due for use and occupation. The answer is a general denial, a plea of payment, a constructive eviction, and such equitable defences, if any exist, as are available to the defendant.

Before any evidence was adduced, it was agreed that title to Longwood Towers, formerly called Alden Park Manor, in Brookline, came by proper deeds, as well as by assignment from the receiver appointed by the Superior Court, into the hands of the present plaintiff; that the lease referred to in the plaintiff's declaration was duly executed by and between the plaintiff's assignor, Alden Park Manor, Inc., and the defendant, and that the present plaintiff was duly and properly assignee from said Alden Park Manor, Inc.; and that the apartment in issue was leased over again before the expiration of the lease in issue, so that the sum now claimed as rent due the plaintiff is $700, the same being for June, July, August and September, 1927, at the rate of $175 a month. The defendant admitted she owed $3.06 for electricity and $.75 for restaurant charges. The plaintiff waived interest.

At the conclusion of the evidence the judge excused the jury and directed a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $703.81, saying: ‘The plaintiff has offered a motion that a verdict be directed in its favor, which motion I am allowing, and I am ruling as a matter of law that, admitting all the testimony offered by the defendant to be true, there is no obligation to warrant the jury in finding that there was any intention of wrongful conduct on the part of the landlord or lessor of such a permanent character as would justify the jury in finding that this conduct was followed by the lessor for the purpose of constructively evicting Mrs. Doyle from her apartment; in other words, I am ruling as a matter of law that there is no evidence of any constructive eviction.’

The case is before us on the defendant's exceptions to the allowance of the motion, to the direction of the verdict, and to the rullings of law. The bill of exceptions contains ‘a statement of all the pleadings, agreements of fact, evidence, rulings, and other matters necessary to enable the full Court to pass upon the questions intended to be raised,’ by the defendant.

Longwood Towers, formerly Alden Park Manor, during the demise to the defendant consisted of three hundred apartments, with a common lighting and heating system. There was a common receiving room at which groceries were received and thence delivered to tenants by receiving clerks. Tenants did not go to the receiving room to get the groceries and domestics or servants of tenants were forbidden to go there to receive packages. The defendant lived at Alden Park Manor from May 1, 1925, until sometime in May, 1927, her apartment consisting of seven very small rooms. She had been a high-strung nervous woman all her life.

The defendant testified in substance as follows: In the winter time she had either too little or too much heat; that every time she did not have heat she called up the manager, told him she did not have enough heat and was informed ‘they would remedy it,’ but this was not always done, and she became nervous and had to have the attention of a physician. She ‘had trouble with the toilet two or three times'; on such occasions it would ‘back-flush,’ have ‘body waste in the hopper’ and ‘smell.’ She ‘called up the management downstairs' and was told that they would fix it, but that it took ‘about two days to fix it and that she had to get out of the house and go to the Copley Plaza Hotel.’ She was continually having trouble with the delivery of food (groceries and provisions) to her apartment....