282 Mass. 176 | Mass. | 1933
The plaintiff as administratrix has brought an action to -recover damages for the conscious suffering and death of her intestate, Margaret T. Denny, due to injuries received while in a building conducted by the defendant as a hotel. The trial judge directed a verdict for the defendant and reported the case upon an agreement of the parties that if the verdict was rightly directed it should stand, but if on the evidence the case should have been submitted to the jury, judgment should be entered for the plaintiff in the amount of $2,500.
On the day that Miss Denny was injured the defendant’s housekeeper, Miss Riley, who was authorized to employ persons to do chambermaid work and care for rooms in the hotel conducted by the defendant, made application to an employment agency for such help. She had on an earlier occasion made a similar application and the employment agency had sent a person to the hotel who was employed by the defendant. On the day in question, in consequence of Miss Riley’s application, the proprietor of the agency sent to the hotel Miss Denny who was seeking
There is nothing in the record to suggest that Miss Denny, who was rightfully on the premises for the purpose of meeting Miss Riley, should have acted otherwise than she did. When she entered the hotel office it does not appear that there was present any employee, officer or agent of the defendant other than the young lady at the desk of whom she might make the necessary inquiry, and there was no evidence of any signs or notices displayed which would indicate to a stranger where inquiries pertinent to the business of the defendant might be made if not made at the desk. The office of a hotel generally is the place of initial contact between strangers and the hotel management. Miss Denny came to the hotel as a stranger at the request of the defendant to see its authorized agent,
When Miss Denny stepped from the elevator into the basement she found herself on a platform about seven feet long and five and one half feet wide and two and one half feet above the level of the floor. So far as appears there was then no one else in that part of the basement. There were no steps leading from the platform. The only way provided for reaching the floor was a ramp or “skidway” made of wood. The surface of the greater part of its width was very smooth and adapted and used for the sliding of trunks and other heavy objects between the elevator and the floor. But on one side of the ramp wooden cleats had been nailed so that persons might walk up and down between the platform and the floor. It was in fact used by the defendant’s employees for that purpose. The basement was inadequately lighted. Although there were artificial lights which would have illuminated the platform and the ramp, they were not at the time lighted. The evidence as to Miss Denny’s movements is scanty, but there is sufficient in the record to warrant a jury in finding that she decided to' walk down that portion of the ramp where the cleats were and that while doing so “as a result of the worn condition of one of the cleats and the slippery condition between the cleats” she fell and was injured. This is not a case where a person invited to use a portion of an owner’s premises proceeds to go into other parts not included in the invitation. See Graham
The only evidence of what actually occurred at the time of Miss Denny’s fall is found in three separate declarations or statements made by her, according to the testimony of three witnesses, which declarations were admitted in evidence under the statute, G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 233, § 65. These declarations are not in all respects identical as to the facts therein recited and they lack details which would have pertinence in passing upon her conduct in the use of care both in forming the decision to descend the ramp and in her actual, movements while making the descent. The degree of darkness in the basement is variously described and, although it appears that she selected as the place to walk that portion of the ramp which was provided with cleats, it is not clear how much of her description of the appearance of the ramp found in her declarations was based on observations made before she started her descent and how much on what she saw after her fall. All of the facts bearing on the matter of the care employed by Miss Denny do not appear. It could not have been ruled as a matter of law that the defendant had sustained the burden of proving that her negligence contributed to cause her injury. Since a case was presented requiring the determination of a jury, under the terms of the agreement of the parties, judgment must be entered for the plaintiff in the sum of $2,500.
So ordered.