Booth v. Merriam
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by falling into a cesspool upon land of the defendants, negligently suffered by them to be out of repair.
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Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by falling into a cesspool upon land of the defendants, negligently suffered by them to be out of repair. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Mason, C. J., there was evidence tending to show that the defendants were the owners of the house numbered 29 on Harvard Street in Boston, which set back from the street fifty or sixty feet, and of a yard in front of the house, and also another yard in the rear of the house; that the plaintiff’s son, acting for his mother, hired the house of the defendants’ agent,' by a paroi lease at a…
1Opinion of the CourtKnowlton, J.
In an ordinary lease of a dwelling-house there is no implied covenant that the premises are in good repair or fit for habitation. “ The rule of caveat emptor applies, and it is for the lessee to make the examination necessary to determine whether the premises he hires are safe, and adapted to the purposes for which they are hired.” Cowen v. Sunderland, 145 Mass. 363. Stevens v. Pierce, 151 Mass. 207. If there is a concealed defect that renders the premises dangerous which the tenant cannot discover by the exercise of reasonable diligence, of which the landlord has or ought to have knowledge,…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Bowe v. HunkingMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1883
- Cowen v. SunderlandMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1887
- Minor v. SharonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1873
- Stevens v. PierceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1890
3Cited by21 opinions
- Willcox v. HinesTennessee Supreme Court · 1898
- Hogsett v. HannaNew Mexico Supreme Court · 1936
- Stumpf v. LelandMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1922
- Phelan v. FitzpatrickMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1905
- Shegda v. Hartford-Connecticut Trust Co.Supreme Court of Connecticut · 1944
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