Georgia Power Co. v. Sheats

199 S.E. 582, 58 Ga. App. 730, 1938 Ga. App. LEXIS 116
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 31, 1938
Docket27126
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 199 S.E. 582 (Georgia Power Co. v. Sheats) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Georgia Power Co. v. Sheats, 199 S.E. 582, 58 Ga. App. 730, 1938 Ga. App. LEXIS 116 (Ga. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

Sutton, J.

Mrs. W. E. Sheats brought suit against Georgia Power Company, for damages on account of injuries sustained, as an invitee, by reason of having fallen on steps located immediately outside of swinging doors in the defendant’s building. The de[731]*731fendant was alleged to have been negligent (a) in constructing and maintaining the swinging doors over a sudden drop-off or step-down in a marble floor as described in the petition; (b) in failing to use ordinary care to repair or correct the building, at the point where the plaintiff was injured, by eliminating or moving the doors so that they would not swing over a sudden or concealed drop-down or step-down; (e) in failing to place around the defect a guard-rail to protect the plaintiff and others therefrom, or to warn her by sign, red light, or otherwise protect her therefrom; (d) in constructing the swinging doors approximately four and a half inches from a drop-down, thus obstructing the view thereof six or eight inches deep to a new floor level; (e) in knowingly allowing the plaintiff to enter upon the hidden peril of said unexpected drop-off or step-down; (f) in not keeping the premises, walkways, and hallway safe for ordinary use by plaintiff and others. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant filed a motion for new trial on the general grounds, and by amendment added several special grounds, and the exception here is to the judgment overruling the motion.

The evidence showed substantially the following facts: The defendant maintains two buildings wherein are housed its general offices and in which it conducts business with the public. One of these buildings faces Marietta Street in the City of Atlanta. The ground floor is used for a salesroom, and also as a place where the public may contract for and pay for electric service. Overhead are offices of the company. Immediately behind this building and facing Walton Street is another building occupied by the defendant. The ground floor contains certain appliances which the company offers for sale, and above are several floors which the company uses as offices. Situated on the third floor of this building, which we shall refer to as the Walton Street building, is the claim office of the company. In charge of that department is Mr. L. F. Wynne. The two buildings are connected by an overhead passageway. Fairlie Street runs along the eastern side of the two buildings from Marietta Street to Walton Street. From Fairlie Street one enters into a small hallway on the ground floor of the Walton Street building, the entrance being about halfway between Marietta and Walton Streets, and the hallway being in that part of the building which is nearest the Marietta Street building. Another en[732]*732trance leads from Walton Street into tlie Walton Street building. In the hallway which one enters from Fairlie Street three elevators are maintained for the purpose of transporting persons to the upper floors of the two buildings. On the right as one enters the hallway;, and just about in front of the first elevator, is a set of stairs which leads to the floors above. At the end of the hallway, and facing a person entering the hallway, is a short flight of steps which lead to the ground floor of the Walton Street building where electric appliances are displayed. From this display room another set of stairs leads to a mezzanine floor. “On that mezzanine floor was a washing-machine department.” Here also is the private office of the manager of that department. These steps are described by the custodian of the building as follows: “The flight of stairs going up to the mezzanine floor are approximately four or five feet in width. And those stairs going up there have a brass railing on them. The stairs that go up there have a brass railing on them, and that railing makes a curve, and that makes a sort of cap to it. Those stairs are just as wide as other stairs that reach upstairs. They are not wider. They are approximately the same.” It was further testified by the witness that to go upstairs from the ground floor, the display room, of the Walton Street building to the upper floors, the route by these stairs would bo shorter than to return to the hallway at the Fairlie Street entrance and take the elevator. These particular stairs are not, however, intended for use by the general public, but are for the convenience of employees in passing from the display room of the Walton Street building to a hallway, where an elevator might be entered on the second floor and the employee be conveyed to other floors. No sign or other warning notifies the public that such steps are for the exclusive use of the company’s employees. To reach the elevator in the hallway one turns to the left on arriving at the top of the stairs just mentioned, and there he encounters a pair of swinging doors through which he passes eastwardly into the hallway. In doing so he faces the eastern side of the building or hallway, at which end there is a window with frosted glass. The mezzanine floor in the Walton Street building, from which one emerges, is covered with brown linoleum, and the hallway outside is paved with light gray marble. The doors, at the time of the injury, were constructed with screen, fine-mesh wire, protected by a grill, each door having [733]*733a heavy eight- or ten-inch baseboard. No handle or knob is upon either door. The level of the mezzanine floor and threshold of the doors end about four and one half inches beyond the position of the doors when closed, and there is a perpendicular drop of about seven inches to the level of the hallway where the elevators may be reached.

The undisputed evidence shows that the visit of the plaintiff, at the time of the injury, was in connection with a claim for damages to her automobile. She first went to the ground floor of the Marietta Street building, that being the only part of the premises she had theretofore been in, and there inquired as to where she might file a claim with the company. She was directed to Mr. L. F. Wynne, the claim manager, who occupied an office on the third floor of the Walton Street building. Her testimony-as to her movements and the manner of her injury thereafter is substantially as follows: “I went up a set of stairs to the mezzanine floor. So far as I know I had never been in the building before. They were near the entrance, the Fairlie entrance to the annex [the Walton Street building], and I followed the stairs. When I went up those stairs I came to two doors on the mezzanine floor. I was walking along ordinarily. When I came to those doors I made a left turn and pushed the door open, the left door of the double door with my right hand, . . and when I pushed the left door open I stepped out with my right foot into space and was thrown forward the full length of my body against the white tile floor cement. It was a nice hard floor. I never knew there was any drop-off or step-down. . . After I fell into this step-down, yes, at the time, I realized that-the door was very close to the edge of the step. In fact, it seemed to me it was flush with the step. . . When I went through the door there was not anything there to indicate the floor was not level with the floor which I was standing on. . . The sun was shining brightly. There was a window there. The sun was shining through on the floor.” The plaintiff then testified that in the hallway on the ground floor which she entered from Fairlie Street there was a directory which had on it the names of employees and their office numbers, and it is shown by other evidence that this directory showed that Mr. Wynne’s office was on the third floor of the Walton Street building. She further testified: "I don’t know how many steps I went up. . .

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Bluebook (online)
199 S.E. 582, 58 Ga. App. 730, 1938 Ga. App. LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/georgia-power-co-v-sheats-gactapp-1938.