Commonwealth v. Welansky

316 Mass. 383, 55 N.E.2d 902 (1944)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

A corporation named New Cocoanut Grove, Inc., maintained and operated a 'nightclub' in Boston, having an entrance at 17 Piedmont Street, for the furnishing to the public for compensation of food, drink, and entertainment consisting of orchestra and band music, singing and dancing. It employed about eighty people. The corporation, its officers and employees, and its business were completely dominated by D. D generally spent his evenings at the nightclub, inspecting the premises and superintending the business. On November 16, 1942, he became suddenly ill and was carried to a hospital. The entrance was through a single revolving door. Various parts of the club were connected by narrow corridors. In total, there were five possible emergency exits from the nightclub, all on the first or street floor. Three of these were poorly marked and in obscure areas known only to employees. The other two were marked with exit signs, but one was blocked by a screen and the other locked. On the evening of Saturday, November 28, 1942, the nightclub was well filled with a crowd of patrons. It was during the busiest season of the year. A bartender noticed that an electric light bulb which was in or near the cocoanut husks of an artificial palm tree in the corner had been turned off and that the corner was dark. He directed a sixteen-year-old bar boy who was waiting on customers at the tables to cause the bulb to be lighted. The bar boy got a stool, lighted a match in order to see the bulb, turned the bulb in its socket, and thus lighted it. The bar boy blew the match out and started to walk away. Apparently, the flame of the match had ignited the palm tree, and that had speedily ignited the low cloth ceiling near it, for both flamed up almost instantly. The fire spread with great rapidity across the upper part of the room, causing much heat. The crowd in the Melody Lounge rushed up the stairs, but the fire preceded them. People got on fire while on the stairway. The fire spread with great speed across the foyer and into the Caricature Bar and the main dining room, and thence into the Cocktail Lounge. Soon after the fire started the lights in the nightclub went out. The smoke had a peculiar odor. The crowd were panic-stricken, and rushed and pushed in every direction through the nightclub, screaming, and overturning tables and chairs in their attempts to escape. The door at the head of the Melody Lounge stairway was not opened until firemen broke it down from outside with an ax and found it locked by a key lock so that the panic bar could not operate. Two dead bodies were found close to it, and a pile of bodies about seven feet from it. The door in the vestibule of the office did not become open and was barred by the clothing rack. The revolving door soon jammed but was burst out by the pressure of the crowd. The head waiter and another waiter tried to get open the panic doors from the main dining room to Shawmut street and succeeded after some difficulty. The other two doors to Shawmut Street were locked and were opened by force from outside by firemen and others. Many dead bodies were piled up inside them. A considerable number of patrons escaped through the Broadway door, but many died just inside that door. Some employees, and a great number of patrons died in the fire. Others were taken out of the building with fatal burns and injuries from smoke and died within a few days. D was convicted of manslaughter because he permitted the conditions to exist that caused the problem; overcrowding, defective wiring, inadequate means of escape, and flammable decorations. These conditions proximately led to the deaths of those present. D appealed.