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Legal Developments

As a part of our dedication to litigation, we provide current and topical developments in the laws of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, and New York.

MAINE LAW UPDATE  |  Topics: (premises liability, proximate causation)

This lawsuit arose out of an incident that took place when the plaintiff and his wife traveled to Maine to attend an event at which they were to be honored. The couple made arrangements to stay at the Maine Farmhouse, a guesthouse owned and operated by the defendant in Bryant Pond, Maine.  During their stay, the plaintiff awoke one morning to the sound of a loud crash.  He ran out of his room to find his wife lying on a landing of the staircase near their bedroom.  His wife was transported to the hospital and died the next day from her injuries.  The plaintiff sued the defendant for negligence and wrongful death under 18-A M.R.S. § 2-804 (2015), alleging that the guesthouse was “unreasonably dangerous, in part because the staircase in the bedroom did not conform to applicable safety standards, and that the defects were the proximate cause of [his wife’s] fatal injuries.” 

Results

Jurisdiction: Plymouth Superior Court – Plymouth, Massachusetts

Shareholders Scott Carroll and John Tilley recently obtained summary judgment in Plymouth Superior Court from a claim involving significant damages caused by an alleged trip and fall at a Boston business park. The landlord of the premises sought for our client, a tenant of the business park, to defend and indemnify it from the plaintiff’s claims pursuant to an indemnity provision in a lease agreement.

During the pendency of the case, Attorneys Carroll and Tilley identified and raised the affirmative defense that the indemnity provision was void pursuant to a state statute that prohibits a tenant from indemnifying a landlord for the landlord’s own negligence. Thereafter, on summary judgment, Attorneys Carroll and Tilley successfully argued that the indemnity provision within the lease was void pursuant to this statue and obtained a separate and final judgment in favor of their client.

Our Firm

Boyle | Shaughnessy Law recently partnered with Impact4Good and Landry’s Bicycles to host our first Bike Build for Charity.  For the event, BSL attorneys and support staff together purchased and built bikes for the Boys and Girls Club of Boston – Old Colony Branch.  The assembled bikes, along with helmets and locks, were presented to children of the South Boston Old Colony Housing project as their very first bikes.