Robbins v. Atkins
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff, who was one of several occupants of a tenement house in Boston owned by the defendant, by the alleged negligence of the latter in allowing a staircase used in common by all the tenants to become defective and dangerous. At the trial, in the Superior Court, before Q-askill, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions, which appear in the opinion.
1Opinion of the CourtHolmes, J.
This is an action by one of the occupants of an upper story in a house against the landlord, for injuries received in consequence of the cellar stairs giving away as she was passing over them. The cellar staircase was a common passageway, for which the defendant had the usual responsibility of a landlord. The probable cause of the collapse was that a contractor employed to dig down the cellar had removed the earth which supported the staircase. The presiding judge was asked to take the case from the jury, and also to rule that, if the condition of the stairs was due to the work of an…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Looney v. McLeanMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1880
- Woodman v. Metropolitan RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1889
- Lindsey v. LeightonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1889
3Cited by15 opinions
- Ainsworth v. LakinMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1902
- Banaghan v. DeweyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1959
- Pickett v. Waldorf System, Inc.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1922
- Driscoll v. BunarMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1952
- McConnon v. Charles H. Hodgate Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1933
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