Bloch v. Frank G. Shattuck Co.

Defendant National City Bank of New York owned two contiguous office buildings. After patronizing a restaurant in one of the buildings, plaintiff left the restaurant through two side doors that swung outward to the vestibule of the other building owned by the bank. This building contained an entrance to the subway. Each side door bore the warning, “ For Emergency Use Only ”. Immediately outside these doors was a short platform that dropped five to six inches to the remainder of the vestibule floor.

Plaintiff testified that because of the uniformly wet and muddy condition of the vestibule floor…