Marut v. Costello

Mary Marut, a tenant of a first-floor apartment of a building in Chicago, at the request of a neighbor in looking after the neighbor’s baby while her mother was shopping, went up an open back stairway of the apartment building to the neighbor’s apartment. While coming back down the stairs which were icy and snowy, she slipped, fell and injured her back. She brought this suit against the owners of the building. Defendants denied negligence and alleged plaintiff’s injury was caused by an earlier fall she had while working as a waitress at the Blackhawk Restaurant two years before.

The jury…