161 A. 81 | Conn. | 1932
January 7th, 1931, the plaintiff fell down a flight of stairs in a tenement house owned by the defendant. This building contained three apartments, each rented to a separate family, with a common hallway on each flight and stairways to the second and third floors providing the only means of entering and leaving the building from the apartments on the second and third stories. The stairway from the third floor to the second floor has a turn in it; the one from the second to the first floor is straight. On the second floor, on the left-hand side as one descends, is a ledge or platform about eight inches wide. It begins beneath the lower edge of the first tread and extends along the left-hand side of the stairs horizontally to a point over the tenth stair from the top. Light fixtures were placed at the head of the flights of stairs on the second and third floors, and the lights were connected with a separate meter in the basement, at the expense of the defendant. These facts were not controverted at the trial. In addition, the plaintiff claimed to have proved the following: About eight o'clock in the evening of January 7th, 1931, the plaintiff, a man fifty-seven years of age, who was then living with his daughter in a tenement on the third floor, left her apartment to leave *235 the building. At that time, all the hallways were dark, and the plaintiff started to descend the stairway with the aid of such light as came through the doorway in his daughter's kitchen, the door of which had been left open. He proceeded to descend the flight of stairs from the third to the second floor by the aid of the light coming from his daughter's kitchen, and, when this became insufficient, he started to grope along the hallway on the second floor to the landing of the stairs leading to the ground floor with his hand upon the wall upon his left. When he had reached the landing at the top of the stairs leading to the ground floor, as he put his foot on the first step he fell and was precipitated to the bottom of the flight of stairs, and injured. There was no handrail on the left of the stairway, going down, but there was a railing on the right-hand side in some places. The treads on the stairway from the first to the second floor were worn, varying from one quarter to one half an inch, measuring from the bottom of a straight edge placed along the upper edge of each tread to the surface of the tread.
The plaintiff charged the defendant with negligence: (1) In failing to keep the stairway lighted; (2) in failing to keep it free from defects caused by wear; and (3) in not providing a proper handrail thereon. The plaintiff filed no requests to charge at the trial.
Upon this appeal, the plaintiff assigns error in the charge of the court, and also asks certain corrections in the statement of the finding as to the evidence and claims of the plaintiff in order to test the adequacy of the charge. The court instructed the jury that it was the duty of the defendant to use reasonable care to keep the stairway reasonably free from defects, and reasonably safe for use. In the course of the charge upon this subject, the court stated: "It would be immaterial how much the other steps were worn if the *236 first step was not worn. In addition to proving that the step from which the plaintiff fell was worn to such extent as to render it not reasonably safe for use, he must also prove that its worn or defective condition was the cause of his falling. . . . Now, in this connection, I will refer to the so-called platform. There is nothing in the case, gentlemen of the jury, which would justify you in finding that was the proximate cause of this plaintiff's fall." The plaintiff asks several additions to the finding as to facts claimed by him. The purport of his additions is to show that the plaintiff was caused to fall by stepping upon the platform, and the plaintiff claims that the court, by removing the platform as the cause of the accident from the consideration of the jury, erred in this part of its charge. An examination of the evidence certified in the motion to correct shows that the only testimony as to the manner in which the plaintiff fell was that of the plaintiff himself. He stated that, when he reached the landing at the top of the stairs leading to the ground floor, "he put his foot on the first step, and fell." He nowhere states in his testimony that he at any time had stepped upon the platform, and the trial court very properly removed this from the consideration of the jury. The court could not permit the jury to speculate as to the cause of the plaintiff's fall. It was the duty of the plaintiff to establish the cause of his injuries by evidence, and there having been no evidence that the plaintiff had stepped upon the platform, the jury could not consider that as a cause of the accident. As he fell from the very first step, it is obvious that the worn or defective condition of other steps than that upon which he stepped could have had no bearing on the case.
The principal contention of the plaintiff is in connection with the charge of the court as to the duty *237
resting upon the defendant as the owner of the tenement house to keep the hallways lighted, under General Statutes, § 2566. On this subject, the court, after stating to the jury that it was not disputed in the testimony that the defendant placed lights at the head of the flight of stairs on the second and third floors, and that these lights were connected to a separate meter in the basement at the defendant's expense, went on to say: "In this respect, the defendant did provide for the lighting of the public halls. The defendant's whole duty did not end with providing the fixtures and the bulbs connected with a meter, but it was also her duty to use reasonable care and diligence to keep the lights in the fixtures lighted." The plaintiff assigns error in this statement, his claim being that, under the statute, the defendant was obligated to keep the lights lighted at night. Doubtless, in many States the statutes require lights in public hallways in tenement houses to be kept burning. Schindler v. Welz Zerweck,
The plaintiff assigns error in the failure of the court to include in the charge certain specific statements. In part, these claims of error are disposed of by what we *239
have said. As to the others, two fall within our rule that if the charge as given includes a correct statement of the principles of law involved, was adapted to the issues and sufficient for the guidance of the jury, the failure to include specific instructions upon special features of the case would not be reversible error, where no requests to charge were made. Quackenbush v.Vallario,
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.