Hopkins v. F. W. Woolworth Co.

While shopping at the Mountain Farms Mall in Hadley, the plaintiff Constance Hopkins fell on the sidewalk in front of a Woolco department store operated by the defendant F. W. Woolworth Co. (Woolworth). Woolco was one of approximately forty stores in the shopping center. The lease which governed the relationship of Woolworth, as tenant, and its landlord, Charles and Esther Schnier (the Landlord), classified sidewalks in the mall as common facilities which it was the Landlord’s duty to maintain and keep illuminated. On the strength of the allocation of maintenance responsibility in the lease,…