Mannering's Case

RUGG, Chief Justice. This is a petition for compensation by the dependents of Mary Mannering, deceased. The findings were to the effect that the decedent was employed as a cleaner in the building owned by her employer, the American Congregational Association, at No. 14 Beacon Street and covering a considerable area; that the rear portion of the building stood on a parcel of land containing about eight hundred and thirty-nine square feet; that there was appurtenant to this latter parcel a passageway extending to Park Street; that the employer had the right to use this passageway for all purposes; that the decedent worked daily and on the day of her injury on the fifth floor of the employer's building, including that part located on said parcel; that there was a side exit from the portion of the building located on said parcel which was used by the employee customarily and on the day of her injury to reach and to leave her place of employment; that she received a personal injury arising out of and in the course of her employment, at the Conclusion of her work for the day and as she was leaving the premises, by falling on snow or ice in this private passageway and sustaining injuries from which her death ensued. There was uncontradicted evidence to the effect that, on the day of her injuries, her work of cleaning was performed by the decedent on the fifth floor of the building; that a portion of that floor where she worked was over the parcel of land to which the right of way was appurtenant and that the use of the passageway by the decedent and other employees to reach and depart from their employment was sanctioned by her employer. It was agreed by the parties that the employer did not own the underlying fee of the passageway but had a right of way in it, and that the employee was a licensee and not a trespasser, and that, if she worked in any portion of the building on land which enjoyed rights of passageway, she had the benefit and enjoyment of those rights. There was a further finding that this passageway was the reasonable and customary way for the decedent to leave the place of her employment to go home, and that she had the right to use the passageway at the time of her injury. This finding means, in the light of the other facts, that on the day in question the decedent had been working as an employee on the portion of the fifth floor of the building over the parcel of land to which the passageway was appurtenant. That was a permissible inference from the evidence of the superintendent of the building where the deceased worked. He testified that she worked as cleaner on the fifth floor of the building, that her job was confined to that floor, that the fifth floor covered the area of about eight hundred and thirty-nine square feet to which the right of way was appurtenant, and that there were certain sections of that floor which she did not have to touch. The other evidence need not be narrated in detail.