Macartney v. Colwell

• Decision Date: 05 February 1908
• Citation: Macartney v. Colwell, 68 A. 719, 29 R.I. 21 (R.I. 1908)
• Parties: MACARTNEY v. COLWELL.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

68 A. 719

29 R.I. 21

MACARTNEY

v. COLWELL.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Feb. 5, 1908.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Providence County.

Action by Peter Macartney against Cyril S. Colwell.Plaintiff had a verdict, and defendant excepted.Exception sustained, and case remitted, with directions.

Argued before DOUGLAS, C. J., and DUBOIS, BLODGETT, JOHNSON, and PARKHURST, JJ.

George F. Troy, for plaintiff.Frank L. Hanley, for defendant.

PER CURIAM.The plaintiff has recovered a verdict for injuries sustained while passing from the restaurant of the defendant in the nighttime to a water-closet in the rear of the premises, averring that the passageway was so insufficiently lighted that he stepped off a raised platform or landing; and the defendant has brought the case here upon exceptions taken at the trial, and in which he denies all liability of the defendant therefor.

It is in evidence that, although the use of the closet was occasionally permitted by the defendant's servant to patrons of the restaurant, yet that it was so located as to be reached only by passing through the kitchen connected with the restaurant, and was "used by the offices upstairs, and used by us, by the help"; the testimony of the defendant's servant Laney being uncontradicted that it was not a public convenience.It is undisputed that the plaintiff was proceeding along the passageway in question, and which contained no defect, in the dark, at about midnight, and that he was wholly unfamiliar with the premises.In Carbury v. Eastern Nut & Bolt Co., 27 R. I. 116, 117, 60 Atl. 773, it was held by this court that the conduct even of an employé in proceeding in the dark on premises of his employer, with which he was familiar, "without * * * calling for light, was reckless in the extreme and precludes his recovery" against the employer.In the case at bar no duty is...