Toledo Real Estate & Investment Co. v. Putney

10 Ohio Cir. Dec. 698, 20 Ohio C.C. 486
CourtLucas Circuit Court
DecidedFebruary 5, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 10 Ohio Cir. Dec. 698 (Toledo Real Estate & Investment Co. v. Putney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Lucas Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Toledo Real Estate & Investment Co. v. Putney, 10 Ohio Cir. Dec. 698, 20 Ohio C.C. 486 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1900).

Opinions

Hull, J.

'This action comes into this court on a petition in error. The plaintiff below, Tester Putney, a minor under the age of three y.ears, ■brought an action in the court of common pleas against the Toledo Real Estate & Investment Company, the plaintiff in error, to recover damages which he claimed he had sustained on account of the negligence of the plaintiff in error, the defendant below.

On Monroe street in the city of Toledo, between the streets of Michigan and Ontario, is a block of buildings extending the entire length ■between those two streets. About one-half of this block, the west half, was owned, at the time complained of, by Mr. Libby, and ttie east half, that is the side towards Ontario street, was owned by the plaintiff in ■error. The ground floor of this block was used for stores and business purposes. The second floor was used for residence purposes, and in the entire building, at-the time of the injury complained of, April 1, 1898, there lived eleven families; six in that part of the building owned by the plaintiff in error and five in the part owned by Mr. Libby. There was a front entrance to this floor, and at the rear, extending the whole length of the building was a gallery or platform, at the outer edge of which was a walk or passage about three feet wide; and leading up to this gallery from the rear there were two flights of stairs, one on the Libby side and one on the other side, and there was on the Michigan street end and also on the Ontario street end a flight of stairs for those •coming into the building from the street. At the outside of this walk was a fence or balustrade, consisting of a rail on the top and pickets or bannisters going up and down and another rail on the bottom.

. Plaintiff alleged in his petition that he resided with his parents on the Libby side of this building, that is, the side towards Michigan street, with his father; that this walk or passage way was used by all of the tenants in common as a place of entrance, a place for the tenants to go back and forth, and for persons delivering goods there of various kinds— icemen, butchers, grocers, etc., and that the tenants and their children were in the habit of going back and forth upon the walk, and that the children were in the habit of playing there at will, to the knowledge of [700]*700defendant and with its permission. And the plaintiff alleges that the defendant, negligently had permitted two of the pickets of this fence, on the part ol the building owned by the Toledo Real Estate & Investment Company, to be broken out of the fence and negligently permitted them to remain out, so as to make an opening in the fence or railing large enough for a child to go through; and the plaintiff claimed that on April 1, 1898, while on this walk which ran along the part of the building owned by the defendant, he fell through this opening to the ground and was injured, for which he asks damages.

The defendant in its answer admits that it is the owner, by lease, of that part ot the building where the plaintiff below fell; denies that the tenants in the Libby part of the building where the plaintiff lived and other children were permitted by the defendant to come upon his premises and use that part of ,the walk or platform, but claims that the defendant, the plaintiff in error, had constructed a partition or gate between the two parts of the building or block, for the purpose of keeping the tenants who lived in the other part off plaintiff in error’s premises, and denied that it owed any duty to the plaintiff to exercise any care in taking care of this walk or railing at the place where the plaintiff was injured.

These, in substance, were the issues of fact between the parties* The case was tried in the court of common pleas to a jury and a verdict was returned in favor ot the plaintiff for $500.. A motion for a new trial was filed, upon the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and contrary to law, and for certain alleged errors occurring at the trial. This motion was overruled and judgment entered by the court of common pleas. To reverse that judgment error is prosecuted here.

The only error complained of here, is that the court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial, for the reason that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence, and is contrary to the weight ot the evidence, and is contrary to law.

There were no exceptions by the defendant below to the charge of the court. In considering the question, however, whether the verdict is contrary to law, it is necessary to consider the way in which the case was submitted to the jury by the court of common pleas. Judge Pugsley charged the jury that the defendant was not liable to the plaintiff unless they found, first, that the defendant below was in possession of or had control over the walk in question, and said to the jury: that if the defendant did not retain possession or control of this passage way, then it owed no duty to the plaintiff; and instructed the jury that that was the first question for them to consider, and if they found that it did not have possession of this walk or control over it, they need go no further, for the defendant would then be entitled to a verdict. The court further instructed the jury that if they found that the defendant did retain possession and control of the passage way, that they would inquire whether the defendant knowingly permitted the occupants of the adjoining building to use such passage way in passing to and from their apartments; and also whether the defendant knew that there were young children in the families of such adjoining occupants. And the court said to the jury: “If the passage way was freely and habitually used by the occupants of the adjoining building in passing to and from their apartments, and this was known to the defendant and acquiesced in by the defendant, then it was the duty of the defendant to use ordi[701]*701nary care to keep said passage way in a safe condition for use by the children of such adjoining tenants, if it knew or had reason to expect that such children would pass along this passage way or use it for any purpose. But if, on the other hand, the defendant, in good faith, through its agent, endeavored to keep such passage way closed against the occupants of the adjoining building, and if by the erection and maintenance of a suitable gate or otherwise it gave notice to said adjoining occupants that they would net be permitted to use such passage way, then it would not be regarded as acquiescing in the use of such passage way by the adjoining occupants and it would not be liable for injuries sustained in such passage way by the occupants of the adjoining building, although at times the gate, through the acts of other parties, was unfastened and opened, and thereby the adjoining occupants were enabled to and did pass upon such passage way.”

The court further said to the jury: “In short, to put it in another form, the defendant owed no duty to the plaintiff to protect him against injury while upon the defendant’s passage way unless the plaintiff was invited by the defendant to go there upon this passage way, either expressly or impliedly.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
10 Ohio Cir. Dec. 698, 20 Ohio C.C. 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toledo-real-estate-investment-co-v-putney-ohcirctlucas-1900.