McCabe v. MacKay

Cardozo, Ch. J.

The defendant is the owner of an office building in the city of New York. Plaintiff, one of the occupants of the building, fell on the stairs, and was hurt. There is evidence that the electric light was not burning in the hall, and this after notice to the superintendent of the building. There is also a basis for an inference that the darkness caused the fall.

At common law, an owner of a building does not owe a duty to his tenants to provide the common ways with artificial light, in the absence of defective conditions, or conditions of peculiar danger, that may call for special…