9 Mass. App. Ct. 882 | Mass. App. Ct. | 1980
The plaintiffs, who were tenants in a six-family apartment house owned by the defendant, brought a tort action against the defendant in 1967, based on injuries sustained as the result of their jumping from a second-story bedroom window in order to escape from a fire in the building. After a jury waived trial in September, 1978, the judge entered judgment for the plaintiffs.
2. The judge also found that the defendant was negligent in removing a second story fire escape approximately five months before the ftre without substituting an equally accessible means of egress, and that the removal of the fire escape “would seem a most direct cause of the plaintiffs’ injuries . . . .” There was no evidence, however, that the defendant failed to comply with the minimum safety requirements provided in G. L. c. 143, § 21 (repealed by St. 1972, c. 802, § 28), regarding egresses and fire escapes in buildings covered by its provisions. The judge found that the defendant’s building had two exits, front and rear, and that the defendant had never been notified by a housing or fire inspector that addi
Judgment reversed.
Judgment for the defendant.