Moors v. Boston Elevated Ry. Co.
| Decision Date | 31 January 1940 |
| Citation | 25 N.E.2d 171,305 Mass. 81 |
| Parties | MOORS v. BOSTON ELEVATED RY. CO. (two cases). FINNERAN v. SAME (two cases). |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Exceptions from Superior Court, Middle-sex County; Dowd, Judge.
Actions by Nellie T. Moors, George H. Moors, Sarah Finneran, and James Finneran against the Boston Elevated Railway Company for injuries and consequential damages resulting from the falling of Nellie T. Moors and Sarah Finneran on steps leading to a subway station of the defendant. Directed verdicts for the defendant, and plaintiffs bring exceptions.
In each case exceptions overruled.W. J. Killion and F. J. Good, both of Boston, for plaintiff.
A. F. Bickford and J. W. White, both of Boston, for defendant.
The plaintiffs Nellie T. Moors and Sarah Finneran are sisters. Their actions are for personal injuries sustained by each in the latter part of the afternoon of January 19, 1931, as a result of slipping and falling at approximately the same time and place near the bottom of the lowest of three flights of stairs leading to the lower level of the Summer Street station of the Boston subway. The other two actions are by the respective husbands of the plaintiffs first named to recover consequential damages. All the declarations rest upon alleged negligence of the defendant in keeping the stairs in repair and in safe condition.
The evidence tended to show that there had been snow and rain and that the streets were slushy. The plaintiff Sarah Finneran testified that she slipped ‘on mud or something that was on the stairs'; that the stairway ‘was wet and slippery, mud on it’; that she was caused to fall by ‘slippery steps'; that ‘what she meant was water’; that she slipped on ‘mud and water.’ The plaintiff Nellie T. Moors testified that the stairs were ‘wet and slippery’; that she fell while trying to reach her sister; that ‘the wet’ on the stairs caused her to fall. Both sisters testified that there was a man in an ‘Elevated uniform’ sitting on a stool and watching the stairs. There was no further evidence bearing upon the alleged negligence of the defendant.
The judge rightly directed verdicts for the defendant. There was no evidence of any defect in the stairs themselves or that their construction rendered them peculiarly liable to become slippery. There was no evidence of the amount or the extent of mud or water on the stairs or how long mud or water had been there. There was nothing to show any...
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