Callison v. Red

149 S.W.2d 153, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 122
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 6, 1941
DocketNo. 11125.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 149 S.W.2d 153 (Callison v. Red) 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
Callison v. Red, 149 S.W.2d 153, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 122 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

GRAVES, _ Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment of the 127th District Court of Harris County, in favor of appellees and against appellant, entered upon the verdict the court instructed the jury to render at the close of appellant’s evidence and before the appel-lees had offered any in their own behalf; the suit having been one for damages for personal injuries, allegedly suffered by appellant’s wife from slipping and falling upon an office floor, claimed to have been maintained in a negligent and unsafe condition by the appellees.

These respective statements from the briefs of the parties outline more fully the reaches of the cause, to-wit:

(1) That of the appellant:

“Appellant, plaintiff, alleged, in substance, that his wife, Marie Callison, on July IS, 1938, visited the offices of ap-pellees, defendants, practicing; physicians, 817-819 Caroline Street, Houston, for professional examination. That, in passing from the reception room to a consultation, via a hallway, Marie Callison fell, due to defective condition and negligent maintenance of the premises. A partnership, ■joint-adventure, and joint-maintenance, were alleged between both appellees, and ownership alleged in S. C. Red. That, as a result of the fall, Marie Callison suffered a fractured hip, with consequent complications, one of which was phlebitis, an inflamation of the veins.
“Appellee-defendants filed separate, but identical, answers, consisting of the usual general demurrer, general denial, special pleas of contributory negligence, and specially denying partnership or any joint adventure.
“The proof showed Mrs. Marie Callison, wife of appellant, on July IS, 1938, visited appellees’ offices to have her blood pressure tested. Dr. S. C. Red waited on her companion. After waiting a short time, Marie Callison saw Dr. W. S. Red pass through the hall. There was no one else in the reception room and Mrs. Callison started up, intending to go to the consultation room of Dr. W. S. Red. Just as she stuck one *154 foot out into the hall, from the reception room to the hallway, she slipped and fell.
“For reversal, appellant submits the following' propositions:
“Proposition No. One. The trial court erred in directing a verdict for the defendants, because the pleadings and the evidence of the witnesses Marie Callison, Robert B. Taylor, W. S. Red, S. C. Red, Raster Colbert, and the proffered, improperly rejected testimony of the witness Robert Taylor, raised issues of negligence on the part of the defendants in failing to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.
“Proposition No. Two. Where the witness, Robert B. Taylor, testified that he examined the floors on February 4, 1939, and that the floors at that time were uneven, such testimony was admissible for the purpose of showing that the same condition existed on July 15, 1938.
“Proposition No. Three. Where the witness, Robert B. Taylor, testified that on February 4, 1939, the floors were not level on the premises where the injured person ' fell and where the defendant, S. C. Red, who is the owner of the property, testified that there was no change of condition. Then the testimony of the witness, Taylor, was admissible.
“Proposition No. Four. Where the witness, A. E. King, after qualifying as an . expert on floors, testified that he examined the floors in September, 1939; that at that time the floors sloped and were uneven; this testimony was admissible as affording a presumption that the same condition existed on July 15, 1938.
“Proposition No. Five. Where the witness, A. E. King, after first having qualified as an expert on floors, testified that in his opinion the floors were not safe at the time of his examination, in September, - 1939, this testimony was admissible where the defendant, S. C. Red, said that there was no alteration of condition.”

(2) That of the appellees:

“The trial court properly instructed a verdict herein for appellees, for the following reasons:
“(a) The evidence failed to show any actionable negligence on the part of ap-pellees, or either of them;
“(b) Irrespective of negligence, the condition of the floor was open and obvious, and Mrs. Callison assumed the risk of using it; and
“(c) Even if the evidence was sufficient to show actionable negligence in the case of an invitee and the risk of using the floor was not assumed, Mrs. Callison, the injured party, at the time and place of receiving her injuries, was a trespasser, or at most a licensee, and took the premises in the condition in which- she found them.
“The following facts were proven by undisputed evidence:
“(a) Mrs. Callison had suffered for years with an arthritic right knee which, through a lack of full flexion and extension, created a tendency to slip and an in- , ability to retain or regain her balance in the event her foot slipped. Despite that condition she was wearing high heel shoes instead of low heel, broad surface walking shoes, and was not using a cane or other support to assist in walking.
“(b) Her fall was occasioned by her right foot slipping on an ordinary hardwood floor, which had been polished with Johnson’s floor wax in the usual manner eleven days before, and thereafter traversed by numerous persons who had neither slipped nor noted any unusual condition of the floor. No greasy, oily, wet, or foreign substance of any kind was found on the floor. It does not appear that any mark was left on the floor due to Mrs. Callison’s slipping. She described the floor as “a little rough”, but she did not expressly attribute her fall to that fact. For some ten minutes or more just prior to her fall Mrs. Callison had been seated in a position to observe the floor where she slipped, and had actually noted that it was an uncovered wooden floor. She admittedly expected any hardwood floor to be waxed. Hence, before proceeding upon the floor, there was no condition or circumstance about the same which was not known to or anticipated by her.
“(c) At the time and place of her fall, Mrs. Callison was a trespasser, or a licensee, in that, despite her knowledge of the custom of the particular offices and that of other physicians’ offices which she had visited in the City of Houston and elsewhere, Mrs. Callison, without invitation and before she fell, left the reception room, the public portion of said offices and entered the private portion of same, where the private consultation and examination rooms were located.
“First Counter-Proposition. Even assuming that Mrs. Callison was an invitee at the time and place that she sustained her *155 injuries, the evidence in this case wholly fails to raise any issue of negligence, which proximately caused said injuries, and hence the trial court properly instructed a verdict for appellees.
“Second Counter-Proposition.

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Bluebook (online)
149 S.W.2d 153, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/callison-v-red-texapp-1941.