41 Minn. 66 | Minn. | 1889
This is an action brought by the appellant, as administrator, to recover damages for the death of his intestate, one George E. Trask, which death, it is alleged, was occasioned through the culpable negligence of defendants in maintaining an unlighted and unguarded elevator shaft upon their premises, into which Trask fell on the morning of November 28, 1887. The defendants were wholesale dry-goods merchants. In the rear of their store was a shipping-room, with an outside door opening upon an alley-way. In one corner of this shipping-room was a small office. The elevator shaft was about 5 feet square, and some 16 feet from the door before mentioned. The shipping-room was used by defendants’ employes, out of which to ship goods, and no other persons were allowed in there, except as hereinafter stated. The elevator was used for
There was considerable testimony offered and received as to the ■condition of the light, from a window and by artificial means, in this shipping-room at the time Trask entered it. That offered by the plaintiff, was to the effect that it was a dark and insufficiently lighted room, while the testimony in defendants’ behalf tended to show that the room was well lighted, that the elevator shaft was in plain sight, and, consequently, in any aspect of the case, Trask was guilty of contributory negligence. In our opinion, it is not necessary to consider this branch of the testimony at all.
It is evident that this shipping-room was not used by the general public. The witnesses examined on this point stated, without exception, that no one was allowed to go in there except persons in defendants’ employ, teamsters who were specially invited inside to aid
Order affirmed.