City of Waco v. Haynes

562 S.W.2d 546, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 2941
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 16, 1978
DocketNo. 5746
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 562 S.W.2d 546 (City of Waco v. Haynes) 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
City of Waco v. Haynes, 562 S.W.2d 546, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 2941 (Tex. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION

JAMES, Justice.

This is a slip and fall case. Plaintiff-Ap-pellee Mrs. Alice Haynes brought this suit against the City of Waco, Appellant herein, for damages for personal injuries growing out of a fall when she tripped upon a crack in the sidewalk immediately outside the main entrance of the Sul Ross Recreation Center, which is owned and operated by the City, as she was leaving a Senior Citizens’ function. Trial was had to a jury which resulted in a verdict favorable to Plaintiff-Appellee Mrs. Haynes. Pursuant to and in harmony with the jury verdict, the trial court entered judgment in favor of Mrs. Haynes against the City in the amount of $15,000.00 and costs, from which the City appeals. We affirm.

In answer to special issues the jury found:

(1) The sidewalk where Plaintiff fell was in a defective condition at the time and on the occasion in question, “defective condition” having been defined as “such a condition that a reasonably prudent person could have foreseen that injury could likely result to the pedestrians using same if such condition was not corrected.”

(2) That such defective condition was a proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries.

(3) The City was making a special use of the sidewalk in question at the time and on the occasion in question. “Special use” was defined as “the use of the sidewalk in question by the City of Waco for ingress and egress to the property in question by a specific group of users other than usual pedestrian traffic normal for sidewalks.”

(4) The sidewalk where Plaintiff fell was not in a good and safe condition at the time and on the occasion in question;

(5) In failing to keep said sidewalk in a good and safe condition the City was negligent;

(6) Which was a proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries.

(7) The sidewalk where Plaintiff fell had cracked and one side of the crack was higher than the other;

(8) The Plaintiff caught the heel of her shoe on the crack causing her to fall;

(9) A reasonably prudent man would not have permitted the crack in the sidewalk to continue without repair because it was likely to produce hurt;

(10) Such condition had existed a sufficient length of time prior to Plaintiff’s fall that the City, or its agents and employees, in the exercise of ordinary care, discovered or should have discovered such condition and should have repaired the same.

(11) Failure of the City to repair the sidewalk prior to Plaintiff’s fall was negligence;

(12) Which was a proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries.

(13) The jury failed to find that Plaintiff Mrs. Haynes failed to keep a proper lookout.

(14) No answer to proximate cause issue conditionally submitted.

(15) No answer to the comparative negligence issue which was submitted upon the condition that the negligence of more than one person proximately caused the occurrence in question.

(16) In answer to the damage issue inquiring as to Plaintiff’s past and future pain and suffering, the jury answered, “none.”

[548]*548(17) Plaintiffs past medical expenses were found to be $2345.00;

(18) Plaintiff’s future medical expenses were found to be $12,655.00.

Based upon the jury verdict, the trial court entered judgment in favor of Plaintiff Mrs. Haynes against the City for $15,-000.00 and costs, from which the City appeals.

Defendant-Appellant’s points of error are:

(1) Plaintiff-Appellee should be charged in law with notice, knowledge and appreciation of the condition of the sidewalk in question; that is to say, that the condition of the sidewalk was open and obvious.

(2) The defect in question was trivial as a matter of law.

(3) The definition of “defective condition” as used in connection with Special Issue No. 1 was improper and imposed a greater burden of proof upon the Defendant-Appellant than required by law.

(4) The definition of “special use” as used in connection with Special Issue No. 3 is improper because it does not follow the City ordinance in question and imposes a greater burden on Appellant than required by law.

(5) Special Issues Numbers 4 and 7 were merely repetitious of Special Issue No. 1.

After having carefully considered all of Appellant’s points and contentions, we overrule same as being without merit and affirm the trial court’s judgment.

We revert to Appellant’s first point, to wit, to the effect that the defective condition of the sidewalk was open and obvious, and therefore that Plaintiff was charged in law with notice, knowledge, and appreciation of such defective condition. We do not agree.

On September 6, 1973, Mrs. Haynes tripped upon a crack in the sidewalk immediately outside the main entrance of the Sul Ross Recreation Center, which is owned and operated by the City of Waco, as she was leaving a Senior Citizens’ function. She was 61 years old at the time of this occurrence, and she and her husband had been active participants in the Senior Citizens’ program conducted by the City at said Center. There were about 250 members in this program, ranging in age from 50 to 92 years old. The program’s activities consisted of dances, bingo parties, birthday parties, luncheons, and arts and crafts activities. Through newspaper advertisements the City invited senior citizens to attend the meetings, at this Recreation Center.

Mr. and Mrs. Haynes had been going to this Recreation Center and had been members of this Senior Citizens Club for over a year before this accident. Her husband, Woodrow Haynes, had served as president of the organization, and Mrs. Haynes as vice president. There were two doors on the side of the building where she fell, and she usually went in the door other than the one which she used on the occurrence in question. Sometimes she would go in and out of the door where the accident occurred one or two times a week, but she testified that she had never noticed the crack in the sidewalk before, or at the time she fell. She testified, and it was undisputed, that she saw the crack in the sidewalk for the first time about a month or two after the fall. Her description of the crack was that it was not “real wide or real narrow” and there was an offset created by one side of the crack being lower than the other. She did not know how deep the crack was.

The door that Mrs. Haynes came out of at the time of the accident was a flush panel type, that is, no glass to see through. The doorknob was on her left as she went out of the building. She was carrying in her right arm a shoe box containing a chess set that she had made. Mrs. Pansy Partin went out the door just ahead of her. There are three steps down from the door threshold leading to the sidewalk which runs alongside this building. The sidewalk is about four feet wide, and the crack runs across the width of the sidewalk, located a little to the right of the center of the door as you stand in the street and face the door from the outside. Mrs. Haynes’ car was parked a short distance to her right as she came out the door. She was on her way back to her car, and as [549]*549she stepped down the three steps to the sidewalk, the heel of the shoe of her right foot caught in the crack in the sidewalk.

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Bluebook (online)
562 S.W.2d 546, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 2941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-waco-v-haynes-texapp-1978.