Rafuse v. Boston Consolidated Gas Co.
Rafuse v. Boston Consolidated Gas Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff seeks to recover damages for personal injuries received by her at about noon on September 8, 1929, by reason of falling down a flight of stairs which extended from the first to the second floor of a building owned by the defendant.
It is recited in the plaintiff’s substitute bill of exceptions that one Mildred C. Sacco, a tenant of the defendant, conducted a school of dancing at the time the plaintiff was injured and prior thereto; that the plaintiff was one of her pupils; that the school was on the third floor of the defendant’s building; that the stairway was used in common by tenants occupying rooms upon the upper floors; that between May, 1929, and the first of September of that year the dancing school was closed; that it reopened on September 2, 1929, and the plaintiff registered as a pupil for the ensuing term; that when the school reopened the teacher had a conversation with the plaintiff with reference to having the latter bring new pupils to enroll in the school; that on September 4 or 7,1929, the plaintiff told her teacher that she had a cousin “who she was bringing in to register as a pupil for dancing instruction . . . and that Miss Sacco said in reply to the plaintiff, 'I appreciate that very much, Ruth. Bring her in sometime and I will talk to her,’ and that the plaintiff, then about nine years of age, did not
The plaintiff testified in substance that at about noontime on the day of the accident, accompanied by her cousin Gertrude Kennedy, she went to the building and entered the common hall through the street door which was unlocked, and walked up the first or lower stairway leading from the street to the second floor; that on that floor the door at the foot of the second stairway leading into the dancing school was closed and locked; that she and her cousin proceeded down stairs; and that as she (the plaintiff) reached the fifth or sixth step from the top, with her hand on the hand rail, her right foot caught in the metal coping or covering on the edge of the tread and she fell to the bottom of the hallway, fracturing her right shoulder and receiving further injuries. The plaintiff’s cousin who accompanied her testified substantially to the same effect.
An important question in the case is whether the plaintiff at the time she was injured was an invitee to the premises or a mere licensee. If the latter it is plain that she is precluded from recovery. The circumstances that the teacher conducted rehearsals on every Sunday during February, March, April and May, and during Sundays in November and December of each year, and that the school was re
The questions, whether the plaintiff was in the exercise of due care and whether the defendant was negligent in view of the condition of the stairway, should have been submitted to the jury. It follows that the direction of a verdict for the defendant was erroneous. Noonan v. O’Hearn, 216 Mass. 583, and eases cited.
The teacher Sacco was called by counsel for the plaintiff who asked her, “Did you tell Miss Rafuse to bring new pupils whenever she could?” The question was excluded and the plaintiff excepted. This exception cannot be sustained as the question was leading.
Exceptions sustained.
.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ruth Rafuse v. Boston Consolidated Gas Company
- Status
- Published