281 Mass. 437 | Mass. | 1933
This is an action of tort to recover for personal injuries received by the plaintiff while alighting from an electric car on Lynn Street, a public way in the defendant city. It was admitted that due notice of the time, place and cause of the plaintiff’s injuries was given by her to the defendant. It was agreed that the street at the place where the plaintiff was injured was more than fifty feet wide; that there were sidewalks on each side of the street, and a line of street railway tracks, six to eight feet from the line of the easterly sidewalk, ran north and south.
The plaintiff testified that for about three years before the accident she had worked in Peabody; that on October 16, 1928, at about half past two o’clock in the afternoon, she was a passenger on an electric car on Lynn Street, and as she approached the place of the accident she signalled the conductor and the car came to a stop; that she alighted on the right hand side where there was a crossover extending across the street railway tracks; that as she stepped off the car the street looked all right, but the earth gave way as she put down her right foot and her right leg “crumbled” under her and she fell to the ground; that the street looked solid when she stepped off; that she had hold of part of the car as she stepped down and she let go as soon as her foot touched the ground; that she was thrown down when the earth gave way; that she was then taken to the hospital. She further testified that the ties of the street railway were exposed on each side of the “driveway,” but on the crossover they were not exposed; that she was close to the car when she fell; that as she stepped off she was about a foot from the car, a foot or two from the inside rail; that it was obvious to her that the entire width of the road was being repaired; that she knew there had been some repairs going on at that point. On cross-exami
It is not disputed that for some time before the plaintiff was injured the city had been making repairs upon Lynn Street for several hundred feet in both directions from the place of the accident. It is provided by G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 84, § 15, that a county, city or town shall not be liable for an injury or damage sustained upon a way laid out and established by statute until after an entry has been made for the purpose of constructing the way, “or during the construction and repairing thereof, provided that the way shall have been closed, or other sufficient means taken to caution the public against entering thereon.” There is nothing in the record to show that the way had been closed by the proper authorities. There was evidence offered by the defendant tending to show that there were barriers or
In accordance with the terms of the report the entry must be
Judgment on the verdict.