Menard v. Tessier

This is an action of tort to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff when in leaving the home of her sister, a tenant of the defendant, she stepped into a hole located in a common passageway. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, but the judge under leave reserved and subject to the exception of the plaintiff entered a verdict for the defendant.

The plaintiff’s sister became a tenant of the defendant on May 19, 1948. A short stairway consisting of four or five steps led up from the common passageway to a doorway which served as the entrance to…