Mcintire v. White
| Decision Date | 19 May 1898 |
| Citation | 50 N.E. 524,171 Mass. 170 |
| Parties | McINTIRE v. WHITE et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
G.R. Swasey and E.O. Thayer, for plaintiff.
John Lowell, for defendant.
This is an action of tort for personal injuries. The plaintiff was in the employ of the defendants, and had been sent upstairs to a room in a new part of their shop, to which the public as yet had not had access. On her return she took a different way from that by which she went, and started down a winding staircase, which also was not open to the public at the time. The stairs were new, and had been treated with oil or shellac. To protect them while drying, a loose piece of pasteboard had been placed upon each step, not covering it quite equally, the step not being of equal width throughout. The plaintiff tripped or slipped on one of the pieces of pasteboard when part way down the stairs, fell, and broke her ankle. The staircase was light, and the plaintiff understood the arrangement and its purpose.
We are of opinion that the facts would not warrant a jury in finding the defendants guilty of any breach of duty, and that the presiding judge rightly directed a verdict for the defendants. There was no concealed danger. There was nothing of which the plaintiff could have been warned which she did not know already. The device adopted to protect the stairs was a familiar and proper one. There was, at least, no greater likelihood of harm than in the case of brass-covered stairs where the brass was worn smooth. Crafter v. Railway Co., L.R. 1 C.P. 300.
Exceptions overruled.
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