Landlord and Tenant, Landlord's liability to third persons. Nuisance. Coal Hole. Negligence, Of one owning or controlling real estate.
At the trial of an action against the owner of premises to recover for injuries alleged to have been received from falling into a coal hole in the sidewalk in front of the premises, it appeared that the defendant had leased the premises to one who covenanted to keep them in the same repair as they were in at the commencement of the term of the lease. There was evidence that at the commencement of the term of the lease the cover of the coal hole was not fastened down at all, that a few weeks before the plaintiff was injured the defendant supplied a fastening which the jury might have found to be insufficient, which insufficiency the defendant might have known of had he used due diligence, and that because of the insufficient fastening the cover slipped when the plaintiff stepped upon it, and she fell into the hole. Held, that the question of the defendant's liability was for the jury.
HAMMOND, J.
The only question raised by the defendant is whether there was evidence of the negligence of the defendant. The evidence as to the condition of the coal hole at the time of the letting, and from then until the time of the accident, was conflicting, and a finding favorable to the defendant on the matter might reasonably have been expected. Upon a careful study of it, however, we are of opinion that the jury properly might have found that at the time of the letting the coal hole was dangerous by reason of the liability of the cover to slip, that the means subsequently adopted to fasten the cover were not sufficiently effective, and that therefore the coal hole continued to be in a dangerous condition up to the time of the accident. They might have found further that by the exercise of reasonable diligence this condition of the hole would have been known to the defendant, and that the defendant did not use such diligence. Upon such findings the plaintiff made out her case as to the negligence of the defendant. Dalay v. Savage, 145 Mass. 38. Hill v. Hayes, 199 Mass. 411.
Exceptions overruled.