Keenan v. Parking Specialists, Inc.

1981 Mass. App. Div. 221, 1981 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 75
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedSeptember 30, 1981
StatusPublished

This text of 1981 Mass. App. Div. 221 (Keenan v. Parking Specialists, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keenan v. Parking Specialists, Inc., 1981 Mass. App. Div. 221, 1981 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 75 (Mass. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Canavan, J.

This is an action of tort in which the plaintiff seeks to recover for personal injuries allegedly sustained when he tripped and fell in a pothole located in a parking lot operated by the defendant, Parking Specialists, Inc. (hereinafter called “Parking Specialists”) at the Wonderland Station in Revere.

The defendant, Parking Specialists, denied liability and further alleged that the plaintiffs negligence contributed to the accident and either avoided or reduced its liability.

The court found for the plaintiff. The court found the plaintiff 25 percent contri-butorily negligent, thereby reducing the damages against Parking Specialists.

The following was the only evidence introduced by the plaintiff on the question of the defendant Parking Specialists’ alleged negligence:

Parking Specialists leased the parking area adjoining the Wonderland MBTA Station on May 1, 1976 and was in possession and control of said premises at the time of the incident. The area was partially paved and partially unpaved for the parking of cars for commuters who used the MBTA facilities. The defendant, Parking Specialists, had knowledge of holes on both the paved and unpaved areas of the parking lot when it leased the area. It had engaged a construction company to fill said holes with stone dust prior to the date of the plaintiffs fall. The hole into which the plaintiff fell was at least 4” in depth, several feet in length and width, and about 150’ from the control office of the parking lot and was in an area in which cars are parked by commuters of the MBTA, and for which commuters paid a fee to the defendant, Parking Specialists. One employee of the defendant Parking Specialists was present each day from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

The plaintiff had been in the parking lot on previous occasions and knew of the physical conditions existing therein. The plaintiff, an MDC police officer, was lawfully in the area at the time of the accident, in pursuit of a suspect, when he tripped in a hole at the edge of the blacktop area of the parking lot, at 1:00 a.m. on May 28, 1976.

The plaintiffs wife testified that, on May 29,1976, accompanied by her husband, she took photographs of the defendant’s parking lot. The plaintiff testified that the photographs depicted the area where he fell.

After the plaintiff completed the presentation of his evidence, the defendant, Parking Specialists, moved for a dismissal under Mass. R. Civ. P. 41(b)(2) on the grounds that [222]*222upon the facts and the law, the plaintiff showed no right to relief. The court denied the motion. At the close of the trial, and before the final arguments, the defendant made 27 requests for rulings.

The court made the following findings:

The court finds that the defendant, Parking Specialists, Inc. pleased the parking space adjoining the Wonderland Park MBTA Station on May 1, 1976 and was in possession and control of the premises. The lessor was the defendant, MBTA.
The area was both paved and unpaved for the parking of cars of commuters who used the facilities of the MBTA. The defendant, Parking Specialists, had knowledge of holes on both the paved and unpaved areas of the parking lot when it leased the area. The defendant, Parking Specialists, engaged a construction company to fill holes with stone dust prior to May 28, 1976. The hole in which the plaintiff fell was in an area in which cars are parked by customers of the MBTA and paid the fee to the defendant, Parking Specialists.
The hole was at least 4 inches in depth, several feet in length and width, about 150 feet from the control office of the parking lot. The court finds that the defendant knew about the hole or should have known about it with the exercise of reasonable care. The defect was in an area where the customers parked their cars.
The court finds that the plaintiff had been in the parking area on previous occasions and knew of the physical conditions existing on the parking lot. The plaintiff was lawfully on the area, in pursuit of a suspect. The court rules that the defendant Parking Specialists owed him the duty to keep the property in reasonable repair and maintenance to prevent injury.
The court finds that the plaintiff had prior injuries to his right knee many years before the occurrence of the accident. The court finds that the injuries received in the fall were the direct result of the existing condition of the premises of the defendant, Parking Specialists. The original injury to the knee of the plaintiff was in the Korean War. He had subsequent injuries to the knee while performing duties as an MDC Police Officer. The court finds that the plaintiff s knee was functioning properly and without pain just prior to the fall of the plaintiff.
The court further finds that the treatment and operations that followed were the direct result of the fall of the plaintiff on May 28, 1976, and were necessary.
The court further finds that the plaintiff was 25 percent negligent in his conduct on the night of May 28, 1976 when he chased an unknown person through the parking lot, the plaintiff knowing of the condition of the surface of the parking area.
The court further finds that the defendant, Parking Specialists was 75 percent negligent.
The court finds total damages in the amount of $150,000 or a net finding for the plaintiff in the amount of $112,000.

The defendant, Parking Specialists, claims to be aggrieved by the court’s denial of its motion for dismissal and by the court’s rulings on its requests for findings of fact and rulings of law numbered 13,16,17,21 and 22.

The defendant raised two questions for this court to decide:

The first question raised and argued by the defendant, Parking Specialists, is covered in request for ruling numbered 13 which states-

That there is no evidence that the defendant, Parking Specialists, Inc., its agents, servants or employees, had actual notice of the alleged condition causing the plaintiffs accident, or that the condition had existed for such a [223]*223length of time that, in the exercise of due care, the defendant should have known of and remedied it.

The Court denied this request and referred to its findings.

The court was right in denying this request.

Findings of fact of a trial justice will not be disturbed by the appellate division when such findings are supportable on any reasonable view of the evidence with all rational inferences of which it is susceptible. Goslow v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co, 39 Mass. App. Dec. 1, 4(1961); Bowers v. Hathaway, 337 Mass. 88(1958); Barttro v. Watertown Square Theatre, Inc., 309 Mass. 223 (1941).

Here, the trial justice had the following evidence before him to support his findings that the defendant, Parking Specialists, its agents, servants or employees knew about the hole into which the plaintiff fell or that the hole existed for such a length of time that, in the exercise of reasonable care, the defendant, its agents, servants or employees should have known about it and remedied it:

(1) The defendant Parking Specialists, was in possession and control of the open parking lot at the time of the plaintiffs fall.

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Related

Bowers v. Hathaway
148 N.E.2d 265 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1958)
Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Co.
162 N.E. 99 (New York Court of Appeals, 1928)
Strong v. Haverhill Electric Co.
13 N.E.2d 39 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1938)
Barttro v. Watertown Square Theatre, Inc.
34 N.E.2d 696 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1941)
Hoffman v. City of Chelsea
52 N.E.2d 7 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1943)
Godfrey v. Caswell
72 N.E.2d 402 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1947)
Parslow v. Pilgrim Parking, Inc.
362 N.E.2d 933 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1977)
Goslow v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.
39 Mass. App. Dec. 1 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
1981 Mass. App. Div. 221, 1981 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keenan-v-parking-specialists-inc-massdistctapp-1981.