Parsons Et Vir v. Drake

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Horace Stern,

The proper determination of this controversy depends on the question whether the wife plaintiffs were “invitees” or merely “gratuitous licensees” upon defendants’ premises at the time of the accident which befell them.

The Ward Hotel in Towanda, owned and operated by defendants, is a four-story building fronting on the west side of Main Street and extending westwardly along the north side of Poplar Street. An open balcony about 78 feet in length and 3 to 4 feet in width extended out from the wall on the Poplar Street side, overhanging the sidewalk at a height…