Home/Court of Appeals of Texas/H. E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Israel

H. E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Israel

544 S.W.2d 769, 1976 Tex. App. LEXIS 3397
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 2, 1976
Docket5644
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 544 S.W.2d 769 (H. E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Israel) 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
H. E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Israel, 544 S.W.2d 769, 1976 Tex. App. LEXIS 3397 (Tex. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

OPINION

JAMES, Justice.

This is a venue matter concerning a slip and fall case. Plaintiff-Appellees Ethel C. Israel and husband Frank Israel brought this suit in McLennan County against Defendant-Appellant H. E. Butt Grocery Co. for personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Israel occasioned by her slipping and falling while a customer in Appellant’s store. Appellant filed a plea of privilege to be sued in Nueces County; whereupon Appellees controverted under subdivision 9a of Article 1995, Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes. The trial court after hearing overruled Defendant-Appellant’s plea of privilege, from which it appeals. We reverse and render.

Defendant-Appellant was the owner of H. E. B. Food Store No. 8 located in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, said store being a supermarket containing groceries, produce, meat, drugs and other items usually found at stores of this type, together with an adjacent parking lot. On June 20, 1973, Mrs. Israel drove to this store, parked her car on the parking lot, entered the store, and bought some items of groceries, including a case of canned soda water, consisting of twenty-four cans of ten ounces each. Mrs. Israel testified that after she paid for these grocery items, they were placed in a push-cart for convenience in transporting them out of the store to her car on the parking lot. She further testified that the store manager, Mr. James M. Allen, came over to where the push-cart was located at the checkout stand and assumed control of the cart and began pushing it ahead of him, with Mrs. Israel following him as they prepared to leave the store.

*771 The public entrances to this store consisted of two sets of electrically operated doorways, one being on the north side of the front of the store and the other on the south side of the front of the store. The doorway unit by which Mrs. Israel exited on the occasion in question was the one on the north side of the front of the building. When viewed from the outside of the store, the unit consisted of an entrance doorway to the right and an exit doorway to the left of the center post, with a guard rail extending from the center post toward the inside and outside of the door between the exit way and the entrance way. The doors are designed to operate automatically by opening when a person steps on the rubber or vinyl mat, and by closing when a person stops stepping or standing on the mat. Each mat extends a few feet to the inside of the store and to the outside of the store from the threshold, and is bordered by pieces of aluminum trim. The mat is a darker color than the surrounding concrete sidewalk, and is about a half inch higher than the surrounding sidewalk. The aluminum trim is approximately two inches wide surrounding the mat, and is bevelled downward from the edge of the mat to the sidewalk. The aluminum trim is mitred at each corner at 45 degree angles to the strips. The top of the mats were flush with the upper or inner sides of the trim, and the evidence shows that on the occasion in question none of the mats or aluminum strips bordering same were defective, loose, out of place, or projecting above or below their normal, apparent, intended height. Attached herewith are two photographs admitted in evidence showing the double doors in question and the particular doormat upon which Mrs. Israel slipped and fell.

PL. Ex. 1

*772

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
544 S.W.2d 769, 1976 Tex. App. LEXIS 3397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/h-e-butt-grocery-co-v-israel-texapp-1976.