Pesin v. Jugovich

• Decision Date: 17 November 1913
• Citation: 88 A. 1101,85 N.J.L. 256
• Parties: PESIN v. JUGOVICH.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

88 A. 1101

85 N.J.L. 256

PESIN

v. JUGOVICH.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Nov. 17, 1913.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Appeal from Circuit Court Hudson County.

Action by Jacob Pesin against Matteo Jugovich. From judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Samuel A. Besson, of Hoboken, for appellant.

Abraham Levitan, of Jersey City, for respondent.

TRENCHARD, J. This is the defendant's appeal from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, entered upon the verdict of a jury, in an action in the Hudson circuit court. The ground of complaint was that the plaintiff was injured through the negligence of the defendant in failing to furnish proper lights in the public hallways of a tenement house, the whole of which was in the defendant's possession as lessee, as required by section 126 of the Tenement House Act (P. L. 1904, p. 126; C. S. p. 5341), which is as follows: "In every tenement house now existing or hereafter erected a proper light shall be kept burning by the owner, in the public hallways, near the stairs, upon the entrance floor; and in every tenement house, over two stories high, such a light shall also be kept burning upon the second floor above the entrance floor of such house every night, throughout the entire year, and upon all other floors of such tenement house from sunset each day until ten o'clock each evening," etc. It appeared at the trial, among other things, that the defendant was the lessee for a term of years of the whole of the premises known as No. 55 First street Hoboken, and sublet portions of it to other tenants; that the house was a tenement house within the meaning of the Tenement House Act; that shortly after sunset on December 4, 1911, the plaintiff, a driver of a mineral water wagon, was engaged in delivering a box of soda water to a tenant on the top floor; that the public halls of the house were not lighted, and in descending the top flight of stairs in the darkness he fell and was injured. At the end of the plaintiff's case the defendant moved to nonsuit upon the ground of contributory negligence of the plaintiff.

The defendant, being the lessee for a term of years of the whole of the tenement house in question, occupying one floor himself and subletting the others, was under a duty to keep burning a proper light in the public hallways thereof from sunset until 10 o'clock each evening as required by section 126 of the Tenement House Act. This the defendant concedes.

Also, it seems to be properly conceded that, since the evidence showed a breach of that duty, and since it was open to the jury to find that such breach of duty was the proximate cause of the injury, the plaintiff was entitled to have the case submitted to the jury unless it could be said as a matter of law either that plaintiff's negligent conduct contributed to his injury or...