¶1Exceptions overruled. In this action of tort the plaintiff, a United States letter carrier, seeks to recover for injuries sustained by him on premises owned and controlled by the defendant. There was testimony that on December 18, 1961, at about 9 a.m., the plaintiff was delivering mail to the defendant’s premises. It had snowed that morning and there were about three inches of snow and ice frozen on the front stairway at the time, After the plaintiff delivered the mail and while descending the stairway he slipped and fell on snow and ice which covered the stairway. Snow and freezing rain were falling at the time. There was no error in directing a verdict for the defendant. See Falden v. Gordon, 333 Mass. 135.
349 Mass. 770
Sirk v. Plante
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided October 27, 1965
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1965-10-27
Key passage — most relied on by later courts
“In this action of tort the plaintiff, a United States letter carrier, seeks to recover for injuries sustained by him on premises owned and controlled by the defendant. There was testimony that on December 18, 1961, at about 9 A.M., the plaintiff was delivering mail to the defendant’s premises. It had snowed that morning and there were about three inches of snow and ice frozen on the front stairway at the time. After the plaintiff delivered the mail and while descending the stairway he slipped and fell on snow and ice which covered the stairway. Snow and freezing rain were falling at the time. There was no error in directing a verdict for the defendant. (Emphasis added).”
quoted by 1 later decision, including Swann v. Flatley
Relies on Falden v. Gordon
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1965-10-27
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently June 2019
1 district · 2 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
View the full empirical analysis of this case →