MacHado v. Kaplan

Both parties live in Taunton where the plaintiff has been employed as a domestic servant by the defendant. For fifteen years the defeiidant with her three children has spent the summer in Barrington, Rhode Island, where she owned a summer home. On the ground floor there was a fireplace, which smoked and accumulated soot in the chimney. The plaintiff testified that she saw the defendant clean up the soot twice in 1946.

On August 3, 1946, early in the evening, the defendant’s son built a fire in the fireplace. There was no fire screen placed around the fire. The defendant went to bed about half…