## Facts

- Clara E. Smith worked in the defendants’ home as a practical nurse caring for their newborn.
- While preparing milk in the kitchen, Smith encountered ice on the floor created or left during Mrs. Hiatt’s refrigerator defrosting.
- Smith slipped on the ice and was injured.
- For purposes of review, the court assumed the evidence warranted findings that Smith used due care and that Mrs. Hiatt was negligent.
- Smith did not provide the written notice of time, place, and cause required by Massachusetts’ snow-and-ice notice statute (G.L. c. 84, § 21).

## Issues

1. Whether G.L. c. 84, § 21 required written notice as a condition precedent when a plaintiff is injured by slipping on indoor, artificial ice on a private residence’s floor.
2. Whether the owner’s role in creating the ice and actual knowledge of the fall excuses compliance with the statutory written-notice requirement.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court sustained the defendants’ exceptions and ordered judgment for the defendants.
- The court held that the statutory written-notice requirement applied to this claim and barred recovery because notice was not given.
- The court treated the case as based on a defective condition of the premises (ice on the floor), not an injury caused by an active tortious act.

## Legal Principles

- When an injury is based on a defective condition of real property arising from snow or ice, the statutory written-notice requirement applies even if the condition is indoors and even if the snow or ice is artificial.
- The statutory notice requirement operates as a strict condition precedent to maintaining a common-law negligence action within the statute’s scope.
- The notice requirement is not excused by the property owner’s negligence in creating the condition or by the owner’s personal presence and actual knowledge of the accident.
- The statutory notice framework does not apply where the injury is caused by an active tortious act rather than a static premises condition.

## Conclusion

The court held that a negligence claim for injuries from slipping on indoor ice in a private home fell within the snow-and-ice notice statute, and the plaintiff’s failure to give the required written notice required judgment for the defendants despite assumed negligence and actual knowledge of the incident.


Smith v. Hiatt, 109 N.E.2d 133 (Mass. 1952)