Hennessey v. Hennessey

The plaintiff sued for damages
sustained in a fall on the floor of the back hall
of a house owned by the defendant and occupied as
a home by him and a bachelor son whom the
plaintiff has since married. The fall occurred at
about 11:30 in the evening of August 18, 1955. The
plaintiff prevailed, and the defendant has
appealed, claiming error in the charge and in the
denial of his motion to set aside the verdict as
against the evidence. The court, in accordance with the defendant's
claim, charged that the status of the plaintiff
was that of a social guest under the rule of
cases such as Laube v. Stevenson, 137 Conn. 469,
473, 78 A.2d 693, Lubenow v. Cook, 137 Conn. 611,
613, 79 A.2d 826, and Torre v. DeRenzo, 143 Conn. 302,
308, 122 A.2d 25. The basic effect of the
doctrine of these cases was to confer upon a
social guest the status of a licensee or,
conversely expressed, to restrict the legal status
of an invitee to such of the persons expressly or
impliedly invited by the possessor to come upon
his premises as are business visitors, that is,
as are there for a purpose directly or indirectly
connected with business dealings with him,
[145 Conn. 213]