MaClaren v. Boston Elevated Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 28 February 1908
• Citation: 83 N.E. 1088,197 Mass. 490
• Parties: MacLAREN v. BOSTON ELEVATED RY. CO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

197 Mass. 490

83 N.E. 1088

MacLAREN v. BOSTON ELEVATED RY. CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

February 28, 1908

COUNSEL

James L. Putnam and James W. Mudge, for plaintiff.

Henry S. MacPherson and Walter H. Foster, for defendant.

OPINION

BRALEY J.

At the time of the accident, although the plaintiff had left the car on which she had been a passenger, it was the defendant's duty, to maintain the stairway by which she must make her exit to the street, in a reasonably safe condition for travel. Keefe v. Boston & Albany R. R. Co., 142 Mass. 251, 7 N.E. 874. If the defendant allowed the steps to become covered with a thin coating of mud, whereby they became slippery and unsafe, it failed to perform this duty and is liable in damages for the injury. Upon the conditions of the weather at the time, the parties were sharply in conflict. The evidence for the plaintiff described them as unpleasant, with a hard rain in the morning, although fairly clear in the afternoon, while the defendant's witnesses with one exception, testified that after 7 o'clock the day was cloudy with a mist, or slight trace of rain until nearly noon, followed by a dry and pleasant afternoon. They were equally in discord as to the condition of the steps. By the plaintiff's description, in ascending she stepped upon some wet mud, with which they were covered, and fell face downwards. But the defendant's porter, watchman, and station master, all concurred in saying that the steps had been kept covered with sawdust during the rain or mist, and when it ceased they were cleaned, and had become dry before the plaintiff passed over them. There was, however uncontradicted evidence, that the day of the accident had been preceded by nearly a week of rain, and in the arrangement of the station, one stairway was used for both ingress, and egress, divided by a hand rail. If the street had become muddy from continued rain, or dampness, the jury from common experience would be warranted in finding, that mud which under these conditions necessarily must have been tracked in, and deposited by incoming, and outgoing passengers, might remain on both sides of the stairway, or spread from one side to the other unless constantly removed.

It manifestly was for the jury under proper instructions to determine where the truth lay. If it appeared by their verdict, that they accepted the plaintiff's narrative as being more consistent,...