Rogers v. Sundlun, 7487.

• Decision Date: 06 June 1934
• Docket Number: No. 7487.,7487.
• Citation: 172 A. 885
• Parties: ROGERS v. SUNDLUN.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

172 A. 885

ROGERS

v. SUNDLUN.

No. 7487.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 6, 1934.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Providence and Bristol Counties; Herbert L. Carpenter, Judge.

Action of trespass on the case for negligence by Irene B. Rogers against Walter I. Sundlun. Verdict for plaintiff, and defendant brings an exception.

Exception sustained.

Hinckley, Allen, Tillinghast & Wheeler and S. Everett Wilkins, Jr., all of Providence, for plaintiff.

Ralph T. Barnefield, of Providence, for defendant.

HAHN, Justice.

This is an action of trespass on the case for negligence brought to recover for injuries sustained by the plaintiff when glass from a window fell upon her. At the trial in the superior court defendant's motion for a directed verdict was denied and the jury rendered a verdict for plaintiff. The defendant did not file a motion for a new trial but brought the case before this court on his exception to the denial of his motion for a directed verdict.

The accident occurred on Union street, between Westminster and Weybosset streets, in Providence. As plaintiff was walking along the easterly sidewalk, a jagged piece of glass from a window in the fourth story of a building fell and struck her on the right side of her head, causing a serious injury. The extent of the injury and the amount of the verdict are not questioned. The case is. brought against the defendant, as assignee of the lessee of the building, on the ground that he had covenanted with the owner to keep the building in good repair and that the plaintiff's injury was due to his failure so to do.

It appears that defendant let to Julius J. Jacoby, Inc., from month to month two adjoining offices on said fourth floor. Each office had three windows facing on Union street; a large center window which could be raised or lowered and, on each side thereof a small window opening inward like a door; over each window was a glass transom. Just before the accident, Mrs. Jacoby opened one of the small windows. While she was reaching across a table near the window to obtain a piece of string with which to tie back the window, it closed and the glass therein broke and a piece fell out and struck the plaintiff as she was passing beneath.

Plaintiff introduced evidence to show that during the twenty years of occupancy by said corporation the Jacobys had never seen any repair work done on the window which broke. Mrs. Jacoby testified that she heard no sound of the window closing but only the ...