Toland v. Paine Furniture Co.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by falling down a flight of stairs, through the alleged negligence of the defendant in permitting the covering of the floor in its store in Boston, which the plaintiff was invited to enter, to be in a defective condition. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Gasldll, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions.
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Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by falling down a flight of stairs, through the alleged negligence of the defendant in permitting the covering of the floor in its store in Boston, which the plaintiff was invited to enter, to be in a defective condition. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Gasldll, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions. The facts material to the point decided appear in the opinion.
1Opinion of the CourtMorton, J.
The plaintiff was bound to show by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the accident was due to negligence on the part of the defendant. She was herself unable to tell what caused it. But that, as the presiding justice told the jury, was not conclusive against her right to recover, if the accident was in fact due to the defendant’s negligence. It is not contended, and it could not be, that the maintenance of the stairway close by the door through which the plaintiff passed, and the neglect of the defendant to warn the plaintiff of it constituted negligence on its part. Hunnewell v.…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Hunnewell v. HaskellMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1899
3Cited by27 opinions
- Schnatterer v. BambergerSupreme Court of New Jersey · 1911
- Lord v. Sherer Dry Goods Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1910
- Wine v. Newcomb, Endicott & Co.Michigan Supreme Court · 1918
- Tovey v. G. E. Lothrop Theatres Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1934
- Broadston v. Beddeo Clothing Co.Nebraska Supreme Court · 1920
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