Tomle v. Hampton

Citations

• 129 Ill. 379
• 21 N.E. 800

Syllabus

<p>1. Highway—sidewalk—what so regarded—private ground adjacent to sidewalk. If one connects a part of Ms own premises with a public sidewalk, he thereby invites the public to treat the part so connected as belonging to the sidewalk, and can not be heard to say that the whole is not a public way.</p> <p>2. Negligence—dangerous condition of private property adjacent to a public sidewalk—duty of the owner. Where the owner of land invites the public to make use of it, by connecting it with a public sidewalk, he must exercise due care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition. So, if a hole in a stone platform between a building and a street, open to the public use as a part of the street, is necessary to light the basement, and it can be made safe by a railing, or otherwise, it is the duty of the owner making the platform, to use ordinary care and diligence to make and keep such opening reasonably safe.</p> <p>3. Nuisance—upon leased premises—who liable for injury therefrom ■—the landlord or the tenant. As a general rule, the occupant, and not the owner, is responsible for injuries arising from a failure to keep the premises in a proper state of repair. But when premises are let with a nuisance upon them, by means of which the injury complained of is received, the owner or landlord will be liable.</p> <p>4. The owner of a lot erected a building thereon, with the front six feet back from the street, with a basement under the same. He laid a stone flagging between the building and the sidewalk, thus forming a stone walk or platform six feet wide, slightly raised above the level of the sidewalk. It was necessary to step up on this platform to enter the stores in the building, and persons along the sidewalk walked over it, and stood upon it to look into the show windows put into the building by the owner. Just below the show window there was an opening to the basement, five feet long and ten inches wide, to admit light to the basement, the opening being left ungu