Gibson v. Consolidated Credit Corp.

138 S.E.2d 77, 110 Ga. App. 170, 1964 Ga. App. LEXIS 568
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 14, 1964
Docket40616
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 138 S.E.2d 77 (Gibson v. Consolidated Credit Corp.) 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
Gibson v. Consolidated Credit Corp., 138 S.E.2d 77, 110 Ga. App. 170, 1964 Ga. App. LEXIS 568 (Ga. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinions

Eberhardt, Judge.

There is no merit in the contention that the defendant was negligent in the use of tile as a floor covering in its place of business, for tile of one kind or another —asphalt, rubber based, cork, plastic, ceramic, etc., has come to be perhaps the most widely used of materials in the building [172]*172trade for covering floors. It is used on wood and on concrete— perhaps other bases. Architects specify it. Contractors use it. Builders buy it. Everybody accepts it.

This court took judicial notice in Holloman v. Henry Grady Hotel Co., 42 Ga. App. 347, 348 (156 SE 275) that marble is a proper building material for steps and held that “even when polished it is not naturally slick and dangerous.” In Maloof v. Blackmon, 105 Ga. App. 207 (124 SE2d 441) where the plaintiff contended that there was negligence on the part of the owner of an apartment house by reason of the fact that the steps at the entrance were constructed of brick, were smoothly worn from use and were, when wet, extremely slick and dangerous, we took notice that brick is a proper building material and held that its use was not negligence. We can see no substantial difference in the allegations of this petition and those in Holloman and Maloof with respect to this matter.

Cox v. Bay M. Lee Co., 100 Ga. App. 333 (111 SE2d 246) does not require a different ruling. In that case the court did not hold that the use of concrete, the material used in building steps and a landing at the entrance to a church, was negligence. The petition alleged that the steps “were so excessively troweled with a steel trowel, rather than a wood float trowel or being sprinkled with a steel abrasive hardener as ordinary care required, that when they became wet or damp with rain water they became too slippery for persons to walk on them without slipping, a condition inherently and intrinsically and imminently dangerous to all third persons walking thereon.” Active negligence in the improper installation of the concrete was alleged, and that case is not authority for a holding that the installation of an accepted material is negligence simply because it becomes slippery when wet. There is scarcely any material that might be used in construction that isn’t made somewhat slippery by the presence of water. That is a matter of common knowledge, and, since it is, it behooves us all to use a measure of precaution in walking upon wet surfaces. “It is common knowledge that people fall on the best of sidewalks and floors.” Knopp v. Kemp & Hebert, 193 Wash. 160, 164 (74 P2d 924).

[173]*173“The mere ownership of land or buildings does not render one liable for injuries sustained by persons who have entered thereon or therein; the owner is not an insurer of such persons, even when he has invited them to enter. Nor is there any presumption of negligence on the part of an owner or occupier merely upon a showing that an injury has been sustained by one while rightfully upon the premises. The true ground of liability is the proprietor’s superior knowledge of the perilous instrumentality and the danger therefrom to persons going upon the property. It is when the perilous instrumentality is known to the owner or occupant and not known to the person injured that a recovery is permitted.” 20 RCL 56, '§ 52. (Emphasis supplied.)

We have held only- a few days ago, as has been done many times before, that a merchant is not an insurer of the safety of his customers, his duty to them being that of ordinary care. Platz v. Kroger Co., 110 Ga. App. 16 (137 SE2d 561). Or, as Judge Hall put it in his concurrence in Kreiss v. Allatoona Landing, Inc., 108 Ga. App. 427, 439 (133 SE2d 602), and as did Judge Townsend in Hill v. Davison-Paxon Co., 80 Ga. App. 840 (57 SE2d 680), the duty is to protect others “against an unreasonable risk of harm.” How measures the petition here against that standard? Stripped of its conclusions the allegations are simply that on a rainy morning plaintiff went to defendant’s office to make a payment on her loan and that she slipped and fell on the floor due to an accumulation of water which had been brought in by other customers; that the water was transparent and that she did not know of the existence of the dangerous condition. She alleges that it had been raining for several hours and, at the time she went in, had “stopped” to a drizzle.

“Everybody knows that, when people are entering any building when it is raining, they will carry some moisture on their feet, which will render the floor near the door on the inside damp to some extent, and every one knows that a damp floor is likely to be a little more slippery than a dry floor.” Knopp v. Kemp & Hebert, 193 Wash. 160, 164, supra. “Owners or lessees of stores, office buildings, banks, hotels, theaters, or other buildings where the public is invited to come on business or pleasure, [174]*174are not insurers against all forms of accidents that may happen to any who come. Everybody knows that the hallways between the outside doors of such buildings and the elevators or business counters inside the building during a continued rainstorm are tracked all over by the wet feet of people coming from the wet sidewalks, and are thereby rendered more slippery than they otherwise would be. The same thing is true in the hallways of all post offices. It is not the duty of persons in control of such buildings to keep a large force of moppers to mop up the rain as fast as it falls or blows in, or is carried in by wet feet or clothing or umbrellas, for several very good reasons, all so obvious that it is wholly unnecessary to mention them here in detail.” Kresge Co. v. Fader, 116 Ohio St. 718 (158 NE 174, 58 ALR 132).

“[T]he fact that water, slush, and mud are tracked in on the floor of premises because of weather conditions outside ordinarily does not create an actionable situation, although the floor is thereby rendered wet, dirty, and slippery, except, perhaps, in some circumstances, as where it is shown that the construction of the entranceway was inherently dangerous or that the person responsible for the condition of the premises failed to use due care to remedy unreasonably dangerous conditions after actual or constructive notice thereof.” 65 CJS 588, Negligence, § 81.

“The fact that during a rainstorm some water was thrown into the front of a store, due to the frequent opening of the door by customers, thereby causing the floor to become more slippery than usual, will not give rise to an action against the owner for injuries to a patron who slips upon such floor.” 38 Am. Jur. 798, Negligence, § 136.

This court has recognized the principle. In Conaway v. McCrory Stores Corp., 82 Ga. App. 97 (60 SE2d 631) it was alleged that it had been raining from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., when plaintiff slipped and fell on the floor at the entrance of defendant’s store and that the slippery condition of the floor was caused by rain water and dirt brought in from the street by customers of the store. She alleged that “this condition and danger was not an obvious and apparent danger which could have been discovered by [her] by the exercise of ordinary care” and that she “had no knowledge or notice of the defective condition [175]*175of the unapparent dangerousness or extreme dangerousness or unsafeness of the floor.” A general demurrer was sustained, and we affirmed.

In Hill v. Davison-Paxon Co., 80 Ga. App.

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Bluebook (online)
138 S.E.2d 77, 110 Ga. App. 170, 1964 Ga. App. LEXIS 568, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gibson-v-consolidated-credit-corp-gactapp-1964.