320 Mass. 349 | Mass. | 1946
This is an action of tort to recover for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff by reason of the alleged negligence of the defendant. At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence the judge directed a verdict for the defendant subject to the plaintiff’s exception, which presents the only question in the case.
These facts could have been found: On December 19, 1933, the defendant became the owner of two apartment houses with entrances at 242 and 244 Warren Street, Roxbury. Thereafter, on June 15, 1934, the defendant conveyed them to one Elizabeth Reardon for $296,000 and at the same time took back from her a mortgage of the properties to secure payment of her note to the defendant for a like amount. On October 30, 1942, the defendant made entry to foreclose the mortgage and notified the plaintiff that it had done so.
In front of the apartment houses is a common terrace
To recover the plaintiff had the burden of showing that her injuries were caused by a failure of the defendant to use reasonable care to keep its premises in as good a condition as that in which they were or appeared to be at the time when the relation of landlord and tenant between her and the defendant first commenced. Sneckner v. Feingold, 314 Mass. 613, 614, and cases cited.
If liability rests on the condition of the broken conductor near the entrance to 242 Warren Street, it is to be noted that this condition had existed for about a year prior to the date of the accident, which would be about nine months prior to October 30, 1942, the date when the relationship of landlord and tenant between the defendant and the plaintiff commenced. (There is no evidence to support the contention of the plaintiff that this relationship commenced at an earlier date.) In these circumstances the defendant is not liable. Hannaford v. Kinne, 199 Mass.
We have not overlooked the plaintiff’s contention that the defendant’s liability with respect to the conductor at the entrance to number 242 might stand on a different footing on the matter of liability from the conductor at the entrance to number 244, but it is without merit.
Exceptions overruled.
It is conceded that due and sufficient notice under the statute of the time, place and cause of the accident was given to the defendant.