Robert Williams, Inc. v. Ferris

The plaintiffs in two actions of tort had verdicts on counts against the defendants as trustees of Buy-Rite Realty Trust for water damage to property caused by the bursting of an eight-inch water pipe in the city of Lawrence on March 7, 1963. An auditor, whose findings were not final, found that the pipe was in the exclusive control of the defendants and that the plaintiffs sustained damage as a result of the defendants’ negligent failure to protect the pipe adequately against freezing. The cases were presented to the jury on the auditor’s report and other evidence. The subsidiary facts as…