Hickman v. HAUGHTON ELEVATOR COMPANY

519 P.2d 369, 268 Or. 192, 1974 Ore. LEXIS 449
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 7, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 519 P.2d 369 (Hickman v. HAUGHTON ELEVATOR COMPANY) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hickman v. HAUGHTON ELEVATOR COMPANY, 519 P.2d 369, 268 Or. 192, 1974 Ore. LEXIS 449 (Or. 1974).

Opinions

TONGUE, J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained when plaintiff’s arm was struck by the door of a service elevator at the new St. Vincent’s Hospital near Portland. The elevator had been provided and installed by defendant, which also had a contract with the hospital for its regular inspection, repair and maintenance.

Plaintiff’s complaint alleged breach of implied warranty; res ipsa loquitur; and specifications of negligence. The case was submitted to the jury by a “special verdict” under which the jury found separately in favor of plaintiff on each of these three theories. Defendant appeals from the resulting judgment.

Defendant’s primary assignments of error involve the contention that the trial court erred in sub[194]*194mitting the ease to the jury on any of these three theories. This requires us to review the evidence. Because the jury found in favor of the plaintiff, she is entitled to the benefit of all favorable evidence, in the event of any conflict in the evidence, as well as all favorable inferences from the evidence. Gordon Creek Tree Farms v. Layne et al, 230 Or 204, 218, 358 P2d 1062, 368 P2d 737 (1962).

Defendant is engaged in the business of selling, servicing and repairing elevators. In that capacity it installed this elevator, known as the east service elevator, in the new St. Vincent’s Hospital. The elevator was accepted by the hospital on January 29, 1971. On February 19,1971, defendant and the hospital made an agreement under which, according to the testimony, defendant had the exclusive right to maintain the elevator and agreed to make regular examinations, adjustments and repairs. The elevator was used primarily to transport food from the kitchen to various floors of the hospital and to return the dirty dishes for washing.

Plaintiff was the dietary supervisor of the dish room at the hospital. She testified that on February 7, 1972, she entered the east door of the elevator on the eighth floor and pulled a cart of dirty dishes approximately five feet high and weighing “over 100 pounds” onto the elevator with her. She then pushed the lower level button on the control panel adjacent to the west door, which then closed, but the elevator did not descend.

She stated that she then saw that the east door of the elevator “was slamming almost closed,” to a point leaving a “gap” of about a foot and one-half and would then “slam” back, after which it would again [195]*195rapidly close to that point and slam back again, as though it was hitting something, and that it opened and closed “very fast” and at a speed faster than she had ever experienced on previous occasions when she had operated that elevator. She then called the operator from the telephone inside the elevator to report that it was not working.

Plaintiff then grasped the edge of the east door with her right hand to hold it open, and pushed the cart ont with her left hand. She testified that she could feel the force of the door against her right hand as it tried to close. She also testified that after she got the cart out the door she let go of the door and thought- that she had enough time to get herself through the door, but that as she was doing so the elevator door “came closed” and “hit me on the arm” with such force that she “immediately felt numbness and a tingling sensation and pain.”

Plaintiff also testified that on previous occasions the “safety guard” of that door would strike and would then “open back up,” but would not hurt her, and that there was “no comparison” in the way it did so when operating correctly and the “great force” with which it hit her on this occasion.

Plaintiff immediately reported the accident to her supervisor, who testified that she was a “very good employee, hard working, aggressive person and very nice personality.”

On that same day, February 7,1972, defendant sent a man to cheek and repair the elevator. The record of his service call on that date stated that “car stuck on 8th floor. Door gib on east door 8th floor loose. Grib screw prevented door from closing. Replaced gib and screws.” Two days later he returned on a “call-back” [196]*196for the same elevator. The record on that call shows “Hoisting door gibs loose. Tightened and replaced.”

The elevator door “gib” is a piece of angle iron attached to the boom of the door, with a nylon “gib”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Associated Industrial Developments, Inc. v. Jewkes
701 P.2d 486 (Utah Supreme Court, 1984)
Jones v. Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc.
619 P.2d 907 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1980)
Biegler v. Kirby
574 P.2d 1127 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1978)
Lewis v. Devils Lake Rock Crushing Co.
545 P.2d 1374 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1976)
Rice v. HYSTER COMPANY
540 P.2d 989 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1975)
Hickman v. HAUGHTON ELEVATOR COMPANY
519 P.2d 369 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
519 P.2d 369, 268 Or. 192, 1974 Ore. LEXIS 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hickman-v-haughton-elevator-company-or-1974.