O'MALLEY v. Putnam Safe Deposit Vaults, Inc.

At the close of the plaintiff’s case, the trial judge allowed a motion for a directed verdict for the defendant on all counts. The plaintiff (O’Malley) urges that the evidence, taken as it must be in the light most favorable to him, was sufficient to withstand a motion for a directed verdict under the legal test, namely, whether “anywhere in the evidence, from whatever source derived, any combination of circumstances could be found from which a reasonable inference could be drawn” in his favor. Poirier v. Plymouth, 374 Mass. 206, 212 (1978), quoting from Raunela v. Hertz Corp., 361 Mass. 341,…