DeFilippo v. DiPietro

This is an action of tort whereby the plaintiff, a tenant, seeks to recover of the defendant, her landlord, for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the defective condition of a common stairway in the control of the defendant.

One issue at the trial was whether the plaintiff might be found to have been in the exercise of due care. The evidence upon this point was that a defect in the stairway arising from a broken step had existed for about four weeks prior to the plaintiff’s injury, and that during this period the plaintiff had walked up and down these stairs almost every day and had…