Gaines v. K-Mart Corp.

860 So. 2d 1214, 2003 Miss. LEXIS 821, 2003 WL 22921609
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 11, 2003
Docket2000-CA-00097-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 860 So. 2d 1214 (Gaines v. K-Mart Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gaines v. K-Mart Corp., 860 So. 2d 1214, 2003 Miss. LEXIS 821, 2003 WL 22921609 (Mich. 2003).

Opinion

860 So.2d 1214 (2003)

Bobbie GAINES
v.
K-MART CORPORATION.

No. 2000-CA-00097-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 11, 2003.

*1215 Thomas Jones, Charles Raymond Ward, Jr., attorneys for appellant.

H. Gray Laird, III James D. Holland, Ridgeland, attorneys for appellee.

Before PITTMAN, C.J., EASLEY and GRAVES, JJ.

GRAVES, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. In this premises liability case a customer was injured when she fell from a stepladder in a K-Mart store while trying to retrieve a displayed item. The jury found the customer 95% at fault but assessed her damages at a fraction of the uncontradicted past and future medical expenses. After the trial court granted an additur, the customer appeals contending that the jury's apportionment of fault was against the weight of the evidence and that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding testimony about and photographs of other stepladders at the store. K-Mart also cross-appeals arguing that the trial court erred in granting an additur. Finding no reversible error by the trial court, we affirm its post-additur judgment.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

¶ 2. On December 14, 1994, Bobbie Gaines (Gaines) and her sister went to the Super K-Mart department store (K-Mart) *1216 in Jackson, Mississippi to do some Christmas shopping. While in the store, Gaines spotted a popcorn tin located on the top shelf in the holiday display section. A six-foot stepladder was located next to the shelf. When Gaines climbed the ladder to retrieve the popcorn tin, she fell, sustaining injuries to her head and lower back. Melvin Jones, a K-Mart employee in loss prevention, filed an accident report, and an ambulance was called to assist Gaines. Gaines was taken to St. Dominic's Hospital in Jackson where she was treated and released a few hours later.

¶ 3. Later that same day Gaines went to several emergency rooms in Neshoba County and Leake County complaining of back pain and headaches. Each time she was given pain medication and released. After experiencing persistent incontinence, chronic back pain and migraine headaches, Gaines was examined by several specialists, including a psychologist who opined that Gaines may have been malingering as to the extent of her pain. At the time of trial, Gaines's medical bills approached $83,000. In addition, Gaines learned that she would have to wear a catheter the rest of her life.

¶ 4. Gaines brought suit in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County alleging that K-Mart was negligent in placing the ladder where a customer could use it. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Gaines assessing her damages as $10,000, but found that Gaines was 95% at fault. The jury then reduced the award to $500. The trial judge granted an additur of $20,491, based upon an expert's estimate that Gaines's present and future medical expenses would total approximately $610,000. The additur raised the award to approximately 5% of $610,000. K-Mart did not accept the additur, and both parties appealed.

DISCUSSION

I.

WHETHER THE JURY VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.

¶ 5. Gaines argues that the jury verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence in that K-Mart's negligence was substantially greater than the 5% assessed by the jury. In support of this position Gaines cites Moore v. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., 252 Miss. 693, 173 So.2d 603 (1965). In Moore this Court held that a property owner owes an invitee the duty to use reasonable care to keep its store in a reasonably safe condition for the protection of its invitees, or the owner owes an invitee the duty to warn of any dangerous conditions not readily apparent which the owner knew, or should have known, in the exercise of reasonable care and the duty to conduct reasonable inspections to discover dangerous conditions existing on the premises. Id. Therefore, Gaines submits that K-Mart owed its customers the following duties:

(1) A duty to use reasonable and ordinary care to keep its store reasonably safe for the protection of its customers; or
(2) A duty to warn its customers of any dangerous conditions not readily apparent existing in the store which K-Mart knew or should have known in the exercise of reasonable care; and
(3) A duty to conduct reasonable inspections to discover and correct dangerous conditions existing in the store.

¶ 6. Gaines posits that K-Mart breached its duty to her by placing unsafe ladders on the sales floor which it knew, or should have known, were being used by customers. Gaines further posits that K-Mart knew that its customers were using these ladders and despite a store policy which *1217 prohibited such use, K-Mart failed to remove them or warn Gaines of their condition. Gaines argues that she provided the jury with unrefuted evidence that she suffered injuries due to her fall from the defective ladder in K-Mart's store. Gaines argues further that it is undisputed that her injuries resulted in severe urological damage.

¶ 7. K-Mart counters that this Court has consistently held that if reasonable men might have a difference of opinion as to whether the negligence of a party constitutes a substantial factor in bringing about the injury, the question of negligence is for the jury, and that all questions of negligence and contributory negligence are for the jury with proper instructions from the trial court. Caruso v. Picayune Pizza Hut, Inc., 598 So.2d 770, 772 (Miss.1992); Smith v. Walton, 271 So.2d 409, 410 (Miss. 1973). K-Mart submits that the jury in the instant case was properly instructed in the law and properly rendered a verdict apportioning fault between the two parties.

¶ 8. K-Mart agrees that under Mississippi law the owner or operator of business premises owes a duty to an invitee to exercise reasonable care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition and, if the operator is aware of the dangerous condition which is not readily apparent to the invitee, he is under a duty to warn the invitee of such condition. Jerry Lee's Grocery, Inc. v. Thompson, 528 So.2d 293, 295 (Miss.1988). K-Mart submits, however, that an invitee is still required to use that degree of care and prudence which a person of ordinary intelligence would exercise under the same or similar circumstance. Fulton v. Robinson Indus., Inc., 664 So.2d 170, 175 (Miss.1995). It is undisputed that Gaines failed to ask for assistance from one of K-Mart's employees before climbing the stepladder to retrieve the popcorn tin from the top shelf. K-Mart submits that this was sufficient to establish that Gaines's injuries were the result of her own carelessness.

¶ 9. Gaines counters that at the time of her injuries, the ladder was already on the sales floor in a dangerous condition so as to be used by K-Mart customers. Gaines points to the absence of conflicting testimony establishing that warnings were posted. Gaines also points to the testimony of a former K-Mart employee, Melvin Jones, who investigated the accident after it happened. Jones testified that the ladder appeared to be "ramshack" and unstable. He also testified that some screws in the middle steps appeared to be loose. Gaines submits that since this was the only testimony submitted concerning the condition of the ladder, any objective assessment by the jury should have led to the conclusion that the K-Mart ladder was not reasonably safe for K-Mart customers to use.

¶ 10.

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Bluebook (online)
860 So. 2d 1214, 2003 Miss. LEXIS 821, 2003 WL 22921609, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gaines-v-k-mart-corp-miss-2003.