Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1927

Mascary v. Boston Elevated Railway Co.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · Decided March 3, 1927 · Rugg

258 Mass. 524; 155 N.E. 637; 1927 Mass. LEXIS 1131

Cases that cite this one

25 later published cases cite this decision.

Picou v. Kansas City Public Service Co. (Kan. 1943)
Michelson v. Waldorf System Inc. (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div. 1936)
Morrison v. Pacific Northwest Public Service Co. (Or. 1934)
White v. Mugar (Mass. 1932)
Scaccia v. Boston Elevated Railway Co. (Mass. 1944)
Drolette v. W. T. Grant Co. (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div. 1942)
Smail v. Jordan Marsh Co. (Mass. 1941)
Gibbons v. S. S. Kresge Co. (United States District Court 1941)
Beach v. S. S. Kresge Co. (Mass. 1939)
Livingston v. Friend Bros. (Mass. 1939)
DiTonne v. W. T. Grant Co. (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div. 1938)
Renzi v. Boston Elevated Railway Co. (Mass. 1936)
Foley v. F. W. Woolworth Co. (Mass. 1936)
Fournier v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (Mass. 1934)
Ward v. Boston Terminal Co. (Mass. 1934)
Manell v. Checker Taxi Co. (Mass. 1933)
McBreen v. Collins (Mass. 1933)
Frappier v. Lincoln Stores, Inc. (Mass. 1932)
Hartford v. Boston Elevated Railway Co. (Mass. 1932)
Hudson v. F. W. Woodworth Co. (Mass. 1931)
Sisson v. Boston Elevated Railway Co. (Mass. 1931)
Blake v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (Mass. 1929)
Seidenberg v. Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Co. (Mass. 1929)
Cartoof v. F. W. Woolworth Co. (Mass. 1928)
Bornstein v. R. H. White Co. (Mass. 1927)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

Rugg, C.J.

There was evidence tending to show, in its aspect most favorable to the plaintiff, that, while descending a flight of stairs leading to the Central Square station of the defendant, she slipped and fell, and immediately thereafter a piece of banana peel was found underneath her shoe; that her husband, going forthwith to the place where she fell, found there a part of a banana skin, “dark or black as tar, and dry, a little dry skin, very black,” and “it was smoothed down; . . . soft . . . as if something had been pressed on it.” The defendant owned and controlled the stairway and it was open to the public.

*525There was no evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant. The banana skin may have been dropped a moment before by a stranger to the defendant, or have come upon the stair without fault of the defendant. The case is governed by numerous decisions. Goddard v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 179 Mass. 52. Pearson v. Director General of Railroads, 245 Mass. 158, 162, 163. O’Neill v. Boston Elevated Railway, 248 Mass. 362, and cases there coEected. Sweatland v. Springfield Public Market, Inc. 247 Mass. 268. Towne v. Waltham Watch Co. 247 Mass. 390, 393. O’Brien v. Boston Elevated Railway, 250 Mass. 192. O’Leary v. Smith, 255 Mass. 121. Additional factors tending to show negEgence of the defendant present in Anjou v. Boston Elevated Railway, 208 Mass. 273, distinguish that case from the case at bar.

The motion of the defendant for a directed verdict in its favor ought to have been granted. In accordance with the terms of the report, the entry may be

Judgment for defendant.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.