Citation Numbers: 158 N.Y.S. 784
Judges: Whitaker
Filed Date: 5/9/1916
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/17/2022
The action is brought by a tenant to recover damages from the landlord for personal injuries caused by the plaintiff tripping over a pail which plaintiff alleges was negligently left in the hall and immediately in front of the door to her apartment. The hall was in' common use by the tenants and in control of defendant.
At the close of the case, the court, upon motion of defendant, who called no witnesses, dismissed the complaint, upon the ground that there was no sufficient evidence as to whose pail it was, or how it came there, to which dismissal exception was duly taken. It was the duty of the defendant to use reasonable care to keep the hallway in a reasonably safe condition. If the servant of the landlord left this pail in the place testified to by plaintiff, it would, we think, in the absence of any explanation, be evidence of negligence. The circumstances proved were, we think, sufficient to warrant the jury in finding that the pail was in the use of the landlord and was left in the place where plaintiff fell over it by the janitor’s helper.
Under the authority of Cooley v. Trustees of Brooklyn Bridge, 46 App. Div. 243, 61 N. Y. Supp. 1, the facts in which case are strongly analogous to the facts in the case at bar, it was held that the jury may draw inferences of negligence from the surrounding facts and circumstances. And we think that in the present case the jury would have been amply justified in drawing the inference that the pail was placed in the hallway, where plaintiff fell over it, by the servant of the landlord while in the performance of his duties, pursuant to his employment.