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Michelina Domenicis vs. Morris Fleisher & another

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court1907-05-14
195 Mass. 281

Summary

Holding. The plaintiff, as a family member occupying leased premises with the tenant's permission, may recover from the landlord for negligence in maintaining common areas, and her case was properly submitted to the jury. The court sustained the plaintiff's exceptions to the judgment against her.

A landlord who retains control over common areas of a building—such as stairways and entries—owes tenants a duty to maintain those areas in reasonable condition. The measure of this duty is to exercise due care to keep the shared spaces in the same state they were in when the lease began. In this case, the landlord had notice two days before an accident that a water closet was broken, which created a fact question for the jury regarding whether the landlord breached this duty of care.

The plaintiff was the daughter of the tenant rather than the tenant herself, but the court held this distinction does not prevent her from suing the landlord for negligence. Once a lease is executed and the tenant takes possession, the landlord's duty to maintain common areas extends not only to the tenant but to all persons occupying the premises under the lease. This relationship parallels how a common carrier's duties extend to all passengers aboard, not merely the person who contracted for transportation.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a non-tenant family member may sue a landlord for breach of duty to maintain common areas
  • Scope of landlord's duty of care toward occupants of leased premises
  • Effect of landlord notice of dangerous conditions on liability

Procedural posture

The plaintiff appealed after judgment was entered against her in a negligence action against the landlords.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Loring, J.

It is settled that, in case of the lease of a tenement in a building where the entries and stairways or other parts of the building remain in the control of the land lord for the common use of tenants, the landlord is under some obligation to keep them in condition. Looney v. McLean, 129 Mass. 33. Andrews v. Williamson, 193 Mass. 92. Miller v. Hancock, [1893] 2 Q. B. 177. Hargroves v. Hartopp, [1905] 1 K. B. 472.

It also is settled that the measure of the landlord’s obligation is to use due care to keep that portion of the premises remaining in his control for the use of the tenants in the same condition in which they appeared to be at the date of the demise. Andrews v. Williamson, 193 Mass. 92.

In the case at bar the jury were warranted in finding that the landlord was notified that the water closet was out of order two days before the accident, and that takes the case out of Hutchinson v. Cummings, 156 Mass. 329, Cummings v. Ayer, 188 Mass. 292.

The plaintiff in the case at bar for these reasons was entitled to go to the jury unless the fact that she was not the tenant but a daughter of the tenant makes a difference.

We are of opinion that it does not.

There are a number of cases in this Commonwealth in which a member of the tenant’s family has been allowed to recover for a negligent act of the landlord. Looney v. McLean, 129 Mass. 33. Shute v. Bills, 191 Mass. 433. Andrews v. Williamson, 193 Mass. 92. See also in this connection Woods v. Naumkeag Steam Cotton Co. 134 Mass. 357; Moynihan v. Allyn, 162 Mass. 270.; Cummings v. Ayer, 188 Mass. 292; Dalton v. Gibson, 192 Mass. 1. There are also cases where one who has come on the leased premises on business with the tenant has been held to be entitled to recover for negligence on the part of the landlord under circumstances under which the tenant would have been entitled to recover. Wilcox v. Zane, 167 Mass. 302. OMalley v. Twenty-Five Associates, 170 Mass. 471. Roche v. Sawyer, 176 Mass. 71. Jordan v. Sullivan, 181 Mass. 348.

If the owner of a building enters into a contract to let his premises to another and breaks that contract, the only person who can sue him for the breach is the other party to the contract. A member of the family of the person who under the contract has a right to become a tenant has no remedy for not making the lease, although he or she was to he an occupant of the premises under the lease.

But when the lease has been made and possession taken, a new relation comes into existence between the owner on the one hand as lessor; and the tenant as lessee, and that relation extends to all persons for whose occupation the lease was taken and who in fact occupy under the lease.

There is the same difference in case of a contract for transportation by a carrier and the relation which comes into existence when the transportation once has begun. If, for example, the head of a family should make a contract with a common carrier for the transportation of himself, his family and servants from one place to another, the carrier would not be liable to any one but the head of the family for refusing to enter upon the transportation. But even if that contract were under seal so that no one could sue on it but the head of the family, when the transportation once has begun the carrier comes under the relation of a carrier for hire; and he comes under this relation not only to the party to the covenant but to each person who is received by him (the carrier) as a passenger under that covenant; and if there is on his part a breach of the duty owed by a carrier to a passenger for hire, the carrier can be sued in tort by any one of those persons.

The entry must be

Exceptions sustained.