214 Mass. 163 | Mass. | 1913
The exterior freight elevator, the fall of which by the parting of the hoisting cable, and the failure of the safety device to work, caused the plaintiff’s injuries while riding on it, was appurtenant to a building, the third story of which had been leased by the defendant to be used in connection with its factory, for the storage of “discarded castings and advertising matter and office equipment.” The lease was not introduced at the trial, yet, from the undisputed evidence, the elevator was maintained by the lessor for use in common by the various tenants. If as the jury would have been warranted in finding, the cable and safety clutch had become defective and dangerous from rust caused by long exposure to the weather, and the defects should have been remedied, the responsibility for these conditions rested upon the lessor, and not on the defendant, either at common law or under the statute. Droney v. Doherty, 186 Mass. 205. Wright v. Perry, 188 Mass. 268. Doherty v. Booth, 200 Mass. 522. Hawkes v. Broadwalk Shoe Co. 207 Mass. 117, 121, and cases cited.
But, if the plaintiff, whose due care was a question for the jury on the evidence, cannot recover under the first and third counts for defects in the defendant’s ways, works and machinery, and its alleged negligence in not providing a reasonably safe place in which his work was to be done, he contends, that he should have been permitted to go to the jury under the second count,
The plaintiff also excepted to the exclusion of certain evidence. The qualifications of the mechanical expert not having been questioned, the ruling that he must have seen the broken cable and
Judgment for the defendant on the verdict.