The above evidence shows that as a matter of law plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in the use that she made of both the clothesline and ladder, which bars recovery herein. See Caron v. Grays Harbor County, supra; Sawchuk v. Santemma, supra; Gillard v. Hoffman, 103 Kan. 572, 175 P. 395; Marks v. Citron, 243 Mass. 454, 137 N.E. 647; Phelan v. Fitzpatrick, supra; Gavin v. O'Connor, supra; Liddell v. Novak, supra; Fleming v. Oppel, supra; Priver v. Young, 62 Cal.App. 405, 216 P. 966. Plaintiff's evidence wholly fails to establish that her landlord, since deceased, was under any legal duty to her to inspect, repair or replace the clothesline on the premises at No. 25 Lee Avenue which he had leased to Mrs. Branson. The evidence likewise fails to establish that the landlord owed to plaintiff any legal duty whatever to protect her from losing her balance or from the injury resulting therefrom of which she here complains.
Boisvert v. Ward, 199 Mass. 594, 596. See Marks v. Citron, 243 Mass. 454, 457; Pilling v. Hall, supra, and cases cited. The defendants' motion for a directed verdict should have been granted.
The liability of the landlord to answer in damages for injuries which result from concealed defects, and damages which a careful examination would not disclose to the tenant but which are known to the landlord, rests upon a duty of disclosure which the law imposes from the relation of the parties. Cowen v. Sunderland, 145 Mass. 363. Stumpf v. Leland, 242 Mass. 168. Marks v. Citron, 243 Mass. 454. In the case at bar there is no evidence that the landlord knew the rail was insecure or that the tenant could not have ascertained on careful examination at any time that it was defective and a danger to him and to any one coming in contact with it.