Krensky v. Metropolitan Trust Co.

123 N.E.2d 345, 4 Ill. App. 2d 14
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 12, 1955
DocketGen. 46,301
StatusPublished

This text of 123 N.E.2d 345 (Krensky v. Metropolitan Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Krensky v. Metropolitan Trust Co., 123 N.E.2d 345, 4 Ill. App. 2d 14 (Ill. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE ROBSON

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action brought by Cynthia Krensky to recover damages caused by the negligence of defendants in the operation of the Madison Park Hotel located on Hyde Park boulevard and Madison Park avenue, Chicago, Illinois. The cause was tried before a jury who rendered a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $6,500 upon which the court entered the judgment from which defendants appeal.

Defendants’ first contention is that plaintiff failed to prove any negligence on the part of defendants. The record reveals that on August 31, 1948, defendants Edward E. Glatt, Marion F. Green and Harold J. Green, were the beneficiaries under a trust charged with the operation of an apartment hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The hotel rented space on its ground floor to several stores, including a Stineway drugstore, which was located in the southeast corner of the building.' Some of the stores had entrances and exits from the lobby, only, and some from the street and lobby. Stine-way enjoyed street and lobby entrance and exit.

On August 31,1948, plaintiff, who was then 13 years old, went to a neighborhood movie with two girl friends in the afternoon. Upon leaving the movie at about 4:30 she and her friends went to the drugstore and entered through the street doors. She made a purchase and left the drugstore to go to her home through the lobby to the exit on the Madison Park avenue side of the hotel, at which are located two French inner swinging doors, each containing three panels of glass in five rows. She and her friends walked abreast Up to the doors. Plaintiff placed her right hand on the push plate of the right door. The door was locked and her hand slipped off the push plate and went through a pane of glass, cutting her wrist. Plaintiff introduced testimony to show that the glass in the door was thinner than ordinary window glass and was defectively mounted; the putty was cracked and missing and the glass was loose. Tenants of the hotel would bang the door with their baby buggies and would break the glass about once a month and on other occasions would crack it. There was evidence that on windy days it was customary to latch the door in question to prevent drafts. Plaintiff stated, however, she had never found the door latched. There was no warning sign of any kind that the door was locked.

The law does not charge one with anticipating dangers and negligent conditions, but one may assume that others have done their duty to give proper warning of hidden dangers. Pollard v. Broadway Cent. Hotel Corp., 353 Ill. 312, 320. In Phillips v. White, 321 Ill. App. 636, this court held that the defendants’ negligence was a question for the jury where plaintiff was injured as the result of a defective handle or knob on defendants’ door. Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that there was sufficient evidence in the record to make it a question of fact to be determined by tbe jury from a consideration of all evidence.

Defendants next contend tbat tbe plaintiff as a matter of law did not prove berself free from contributory negligence. Sbe was 13 years of age when tbe accident occurred. Tbe law of tbis State is tbat as to a child between tbe ages of seven and fourteen tbe question of culpability is one of fact and must be left to tbe jury to determine, taking into consideration tbe age, capacity, intelligence and experience of tbe child. Maskaliunas v. Chicago & W. I. R. Co., 318 Ill. 142; Lake Erie & W. R. Co. v. Klinkrath, 227 Ill. 439; City of Pekin v. McMahon, 154 Ill. 141; Rockford, R. I. & St. L. R. Co. v. Delaney, 82 Ill. 198. On tbis point tbe record reveals tbat Helen Schwartz, a witness for defendants, testified tbat immediately prior to tbe accident sbe was walking behind plaintiff and her two friends as they left tbe drugstore. As they approached tbe door tbe other girls were trying to get something that- plaintiff was bolding in her bands. Tbe friends were making playful gestures at trying to get it. As plaintiff and her friends reached tbe door sbe bad stopped just behind them to open tbe door to tbe ladies’ room. Sbe saw, first, tbe plaintiff’s band against tbe center pane second from tbe top. Sbe put tbe key in tbe door of tbe ladies’ room. Sbe began to turn tbe key. Sbe even opened tbe door. Then sbe beard a crash of glass, and then sbe looked up and saw plaintiff’s arm bad gone through tbe glass. Sbe then went into tbe rest room. Sbe did nothing about tbe injury to tbe plaintiff and made no inquiry about it.

Mr. Pirmin R. Tberond, manager of tbe hotel at tbe time, a witness for defendants, testified tbat tbe morning following tbe accident be bad seen missing from tbe right-hand door tbe center pane in tbe second row from tbe top. Upon cross-examination be admitted tbat at tbe time of a deposition given approximately one year after the accident he had had no certain recollection which panel he had found- missing at the time he had examined the door. He said that a Mr. Va-lento, who later died, used to he at the hotel, did all the repair work and replaced the glass in the door. He said that on the average one pane a month was broken by tenants who pushed the protruding ends of baby buggies or strollers into the doors to open them. He denied that the right-hand door had been re-varnished, repainted or repaired between August 31, 1948, when plaintiff sustained the injury, and March 1949, but admitted that' there might have been some very slight repairs that he did not know about.

Henry A. Kuehl, an engineer and contractor, testified for defendants that he had sometime in March 1949, at the request of defendants, examined the door and found repairs to the pane located second from the top in the center. The others showed varnish on their edges, whereas that one was perfectly clear. The bottom of that pane is fifty-one inches from the ground. Mr. Kuehl’s examination was made almost seven months after the accident. He did not know when the last coat of varnish had been put on, nor when repairs were last made.

The plaintiff, Cynthia Krensky, denied that she had anything in her hand which the other girls were trying to get. She denied she had her hand raised. One of the other girls with her at the time testified that neither she nor the other girl was trying to get anything from the Krensky girl’s hand. She denied that Cynthia’s hand was raised. They were not frolicking. Nor were they running, jumping or scuffling. They were walking. They saw no one behind them, no one opening the door to the ladies’ room. The Krensky girl in testifying pointed to the pane in the row adjacent to the brass push plate, third from the top and bottom, as the pane through which her hand crashed as it moved off the metal plate.

In view of the sharp conflict in the testimony and considering that plaintiff was 13 years of age, we are of the opinion that this was a question of fact for the jury. Sims v. Chicago Transit Authority, 4 Ill.2d 60. Murphy v. Illinois State Trust Co., 375 Ill. 310.

Defendants contend that plaintiff was not an invitee but a mere licensee and that they were obligated only to refrain from willfully causing her injury.

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Bluebook (online)
123 N.E.2d 345, 4 Ill. App. 2d 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/krensky-v-metropolitan-trust-co-illappct-1955.