Louthan

This is an appeal from a judgment, entered on the verdict of a jury, against the defendant, Hewes, for the sum of four thousand dollars, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial. The suit ,was for injuries caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant. The principal question in the case is as to the ruling of the court in refusing to give certain instructions asked by the defendant.

The plaintiff’s injuries were occasioned by falling on the stairway, leading from the first to the second story of Hewes’s house, at the east corner of Market and Sixth streets,—the building being of two stories, and the upper story containing, besides offices, a hall occupied, as tenant of Hewes, by a society called the “First Progressive Spiritual Church.” The accident occurred on the evening of February 21, 1897. The plaintiff had been attending services at the hall alluded to, and in descending the stairway stumbled and fell between the second floor and the landing intermediate between it and the ground floor, receiving the injuries complained of. At the time of the accident the stairway, which was in process of construction, had been completed, except as to painting and other…