Briones v. Levine's Department Store, Inc.

435 S.W.2d 876, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2587
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1968
Docket11634
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 435 S.W.2d 876 (Briones v. Levine's Department Store, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Briones v. Levine's Department Store, Inc., 435 S.W.2d 876, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2587 (Tex. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinions

O’QUINN, Justice.

In a former appeal of this cause (415 S.W.2d 460, writ ref., n. r. e.) we remanded the case because there were material issues of fact precluding rendition of a summary judgment.

Upon return to the district court, and after trial before a jury, the court entered judgment on the verdict that appellant, plaintiff below, take nothing in her suit for personal injuries sustained when she fell backward over a power lawnmower displayed for sale in an aisle in the defendant’s store.

From the judgment of the trial court, plaintiff appeals and assigns thirty points of error.

Appellant made selections of merchandise from a display table and stepped backward from the table at which she was standing. In stepping back, she tripped on the lawnmower sitting on the floor behind her and was injured by the fall.

The jury found that the lawnmower was not hidden or concealed from appellant’s view by hanging clothes, display racks, tables, or merchandise.

[878]*878In our previous consideration of this case we concluded there was a fact issue on whether the lawnmower was concealed or hidden from appellant’s view by dress racks or merchandise across the aisle from the display table so that the danger might not have been open and obvious.

We found a further issue on whether the conduct of a saleswoman was negligence proximately causing the accident. In the record of the summary judgment proceedings it appeared that the saleswoman passed between appellant and the display table causing her to step back and hit the mower.

The jury found that the saleswoman was not attempting to proceed between appellant and the display table on her way to the cash register when appellant stepped back and tripped.

Appellant assails the judgment of the trial court with the argument that it was based upon the “no duty” doctrine, flowing from the jury finding that the lawnmower was not hidden or concealed, but that the judgment did not set aside the jury’s findings in answer to special issues 4, 5, and 6, and to special issues 10 and 11.

In answer to special issue 4 the jury found that appellee “had a lawn mower on display in the aisle amongst the clothes on a clothes rack and immediately across from a merchandise display table, so close to said display table as to constitute a danger to customers similarly situated to [appellant] * * * making selections from the display table.”

Under issues 5 and 6 the jury found “that placing of the lawnmower in the aisle amongst the clothes on a clothes rack and immediately across from the display table” was negligence and a proximate cause of the fall appellant sustained.

In answering special issue 10, the jury found that appellant “did not fail to keep a proper lookout for merchandise on display on the floor of the Levine’s store and particularly for the lawnmower over which she fell.” Although not required to, the jury answered issue 11 to find that failure to keep a proper lookout was not negligence.

At the request of appellant, the trial court found that the evidence was undisputed that when appellant stepped back from the display table and tripped on the lawnmower, she did not know the mower was there.

After a careful examination of the record, we conclude that our decision under the facts of this case is controlled by Halepeska v. Callihan Interests, Inc., 371 S.W.2d 368 (Tex.1963).

The rule is that if the danger, in this case the lawnmower, is open and obvious and is known to the invitee, the occupier of the premises owes no duty to warn or protect. The reasoning is that there is no duty to warn the invitee of things she already knows, or of dangerous conditions so open and obvious that as a matter of law the invitee will be charged with knowledge and appreciation thereof. Halepeska v. Callihan Interests, Inc., supra; Harvey v. Seale, 362 S.W.2d 310 (Tex.1962).

Appellee owed a duty to appellant, as a business invitee, to protect her against conditions of the store premises that would involve an unreasonable risk to her safety, the “danger of which would not be open or obvious to a person exercising ordinary care.” Houston National Bank v. Adair, 146 Tex. 387, 207 S.W.2d 374 (1948).

The jury found that the lawnmower was not concealed or hidden, and that the failure of the saleswoman to warn appellant was not negligence. The fact that appellant tripped over a lawnmower in appellee’s store and was injured as she fell backward does not establish liability. There must be evidence showing that in some way appellee was at fault and that the fault was a cause of her injury. The jury’s finding that appellee created a danger by placing a hardware article, the lawnmower, in an- aisle amongst displays of soft goods, such as clothing, in close prox[879]*879imity to the display table cannot alter or increase the obligation imposed by the law upon appellee to protect or warn appellant only if the danger is not open and obvious. If the danger caused by the close proximity of the lawnmower to the display table was open and obvious, there was no duty to protect or warn appellant.

The jury’s finding that placing the lawnmower close to the display table constituted a danger is not inconsistent with the finding that the lawnmower was not hidden or concealed. There was no issue to establish, and we find no facts suggesting, that the lawnmower, sitting on display in the aisle, was not open and obvious, either because of its presence in the aisle amongst clothes on a rack or because of its close proximity to the display table.

Appellant argues that “* * * the location of a lawnmower amongst ladies’ dresses and children’s garments is somewhat incongruous, and any danger created by its location with respect to the clothes or tables or other items in that area of the store would be less obvious to persons seeking to buy garments, and any dangerous condition created would very likely not be noticeable unless the attention of the customer was particularly drawn to it.”

The incongruity of placing hardware articles in a section of the store otherwise devoted to display of clothing will not of itself impose a duty to protect or warn against the danger thereby created if the presence of the hardware is open and obvious. The jury found that at the time and on the occasion the lawnmower over which appellant fell was not concealed or hidden from appellant’s view by hanging clothes or other merchandise or display racks or tables located on the floor of the store in the immediate vicinity of the mower. Since the lawnmower was in no way hidden or concealed, whatever danger it presented was open and obvious. Ap-pellee had no duty to call particular attention to it or to protect customers from tripping over it.

Appellant’s points asserting error on this question are overruled.

Appellant contends that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence four photographs introduced by appellee attempting to show the interior of Levine’s store as it existed at the time of appellant’s accident. Timely objection was made at the trial and the point has been duly preserved for our consideration.

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Briones v. Levine's Department Store, Inc.
435 S.W.2d 876 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)

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435 S.W.2d 876, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/briones-v-levines-department-store-inc-texapp-1968.