White v. Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank & Seventh Avenue Corp.

The evidence established that neither the cellar doors nor the front part of the cellar to which they led were in the possession or control of the defendants. No claim is made that the cellar doors were not properly constructed or that they were a nuisance because they were maintained without the permission of the proper authorities. Under the circumstances, it was error to hold the defendants hable for the accident to the plaintiff.

In Kirby v. Newman (239 N. Y. 470, 473, 474) Judge Lehman, writing for the Court of Appeals, said: “ The owner who maintains an opening in the street in front of…