(DOWNLOAD) "Wainwright v. Jackson Et Al." by Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Wainwright v. Jackson Et Al.
- Author : Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- Release Date : January 17, 1935
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 63 KB
Description
RUGG, Chief Justice. The plaintiff in this action of tort seeks to recover compensation for personal injuries sustained by
him as a result of alleged negligence of the defendants. The contention of the plaintiff is that the defendants, owners of
an apartment house in which the plaintiff was a tenant, failed to provide the fire fighting appliances required by G. L. (Ter.
Ed.) c. 143, § 24, that that failure constituted negligence, and that such negligence was the cause of his injuries.
The trial Judge found that the plaintiff was an occupant of an apartment in a house owned by the defendants and was injured
by reason of jumping from a window on the second floor of the building in order to escape injury by fire. The defendants neglected
to perform the duty imposed on them by G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 143, § 24, requiring that the basement and each story
of a building like that in which the plaintiff lived 'shall be supplied with means of extinguishing fire * * * and such appliances
shall be kept at all times ready for use and in good condition.' On the day in question fire of unknown origin started in
the basement of the building. About 10 o'clock in the evening the janitor of the building went to the basement, banked his
fires, and returned to his apartment which was on the second floor of the three story building. After being in his apartment
about three or five minutes he smelled smoke, found that the basement was a mass of flames and smoke and it was impossible
for him to go down. The fire gained headway so rapidly that he could not do anything to stop it except to telephone the fire
department, which was done at once. The trial Judge found that there was no negligence on the part of the plaintiff in jumping
from the window of his apartment, but upon all the evidence he was 'unable to find affirmatively that the defendants' failure
to provide appliances for fire protection as required' by the statute 'was the proximate cause of or in any way causally related
to the injuries sustained by the plaintiff' since there was no evidence that the plaintiff or any of the other tenants tried
to use a fire extinguisher or even to find one to use as a means of protection when the fire broke out. The trial Judge denied the plaintiff's request for ruling to the effect that 'on all the evidence the plaintiff is entitled
to recover.' This request was not in conformity to that part of Rule 28 of the Rules of the Municipal Court of the City of
Boston (1932) of this tenor: 'No review as of right shall lie to the refusal of a request for a ruling 'upon all the evidence'
in a case admitting of specification of the grounds upon which such request is based unless such grounds are specified in
the request, and then only upon the grounds so specified.' It was possible to make requests containing specifications touching
the points argued by the plaintiff. Reid v. Doherty, 273 Mass. 388, 173 N.E. 516; Holton v. American Pastry Products Corp.,
274 Mass. 268, 174 N.E. 663; Duralith Corp. v. Leonard, 274 Mass. 397, 400, 174 N.E. 511.
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