Gaffney v. Brown
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by falling down a flight of stairs in the defendant’s boarding-house. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Sherman, J., there was evidence tending to prove the following facts. The defendant occupied the house in question and kept a public dining-room, and the plaintiff for several days prior to the accident had resorted to it for her noonday meal, for which she paid a stipulated price.
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Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by falling down a flight of stairs in the defendant’s boarding-house. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Sherman, J., there was evidence tending to prove the following facts. The defendant occupied the house in question and kept a public dining-room, and the plaintiff for several days prior to the accident had resorted to it for her noonday meal, for which she paid a stipulated price. The dining-room was on the ground floor, and extended through from the front of the house to the rear, a distance of about forty feet. It was…
1Opinion of the CourtDevens, J.
As the plaintiff was on the premises by invitation as a customer at the public dining-room kept by the defendant, it was the duty of the defendant to keep the room and the approach or approaches thereto in a reasonably safe condition for ingress and egress, and to use reasonable care in order that no injury might occur in .passing through the premises to or from the outer door., Sweeny v. Old Colony & Newport Railroad, 10 Allen, 368, 373. Carleton v. Franconia Iron & Steel Co. 99 Mass. 216. Severy v. Nickerson, 120 Mass. 306. It was, on the other hand, equally the duty of the plaintiff…
2Cases cited5 opinions
- Carleton v. Franconia Iron & Steel Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868
- Severy v. NickersonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
- Mayo v. Boston & Maine RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- Chaffee v. Boston & Lowell RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- Wheelock v. Boston & Albany RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
3Cited by29 opinions
- Palmer v. Boston Penny Savings BankMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1938
- Cowen v. KirbyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1902
- Williamson v. NeitzelIdaho Supreme Court · 1927
- Kauffman v. MacHin Shirt Co.California Supreme Court · 1914
- Gardner v. Waterloo Cream Separator Co.Supreme Court of Iowa · 1907
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