Marshall v. Buddies Super Markets, Inc.

511 S.W.2d 387, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2450
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 14, 1974
DocketNo. 17513
StatusPublished

This text of 511 S.W.2d 387 (Marshall v. Buddies Super Markets, Inc.) 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
Marshall v. Buddies Super Markets, Inc., 511 S.W.2d 387, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2450 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff, Maude Marshall, from a take nothing judgment that was rendered against her, non ob-stante veredicto, by the trial court. The defendant is Buddies Super Markets, Inc.

The plaintiff sued here to recover damages for personal injuries that she allegedly sustained when she tripped and fell over an empty wooden platform that was lying in the middle of a sidewalk located outside of defendant’s grocery store building, but on defendant’s premises that were used in connection with the operation of defendant’s grocery store at Grapevine, Texas.

The jury in its verdict found: (1) that defendant created a dangerous condition by maintaining on its sidewalk north of defendant’s building an empty platform detached from the building; (2) that defendant knew or by the exercise of ordinary care should have known of the dangerous condition on that occasion; (3) that plaintiff fell over the platform; (4) that defendant’s failure to remove the platform was negligence and a proximate cause of plaintiff’s fall; (5) that defendant’s failure to warn plaintiff of the existence of the platform on the sidewalk was negligence and a proximate cause of plaintiff’s fall; (6) that plaintiff sustained $15,765.00 damages by reason of the injuries she got in the fall; (7) that plaintiff did not fail to keep a proper lookout on the occasion; and (8) the jury answered “We do not’’ to an issue inquiring whether it found from a preponderance of the evidence that plaintiff assumed the risk of walking on the sidewalk on the occasion in question.

We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

The following facts were undisputed: The plaintiff had been a customer in defendant’s store on other occasions and was a customer when she fell; the store building faced west; plaintiff had parked her car on defendant’s parking lot near the northeast corner of the store building, got out and walked west behind her car and behind two other cars that were parked beside her car, then turned to her left and got on the sidewalk that runs along the north side of the store building and proceeded west on it to the northwest corner of the building and there turned left and walked south to the store entrance that was located on the west side of the building; while inside the store she purchased [389]*389groceries from defendant consisting of two loaves of bread, one dozen eggs, lunch meat, and four No. 3 cans of canned goods; these groceries were placed in two sacks and plaintiff carried them in her arms out of the store and headed back to her car; when plaintiff turned the corner and headed east on the sidewalk along the north side of the store building, while en route back to her car, she was not paying any attention to the platform over which she fell and did not see it and walked IS or 20 feet east and there tripped on the platform and fell across it; when she fell it was daytime, the sun was shining, it was 4:30 P.M. on December 31, 1970, and visibility was good; the platform was, when she fell on it, lying in plain view in the middle of the sidewalk; on prior trips to the store she had seen platforms in this area leaning against the wall of the building; this platform was used to stack sacks of fertilizer on; it was pretty big, her estimate being 21/2 feet wide and 2 inches high; as she came along the sidewalk going into the store she did not pay any attention to the platforms as they had always been in the area; when she fell she was looking straight ahead; she had never seen these platforms on the sidewalk before; there was a canopy over the sidewalk that was held up by steel poles and she was walking between the poles and on the sidewalk when she tripped over the platform that was lying in the middle of the sidewalk; she had a sack of groceries in each arm and there was nothing in front of her to block her view at the time she fell. Defendant’s store manager testified that the platform was 3½ feet wide by 6 feet long.

The gist of the contentions urged by plaintiff in her first five points of error is that the trial court erred in rendering judgment notwithstanding the verdict for defendant and in overruling her motion for judgment on the verdict.

We overrule those five points.

The court’s action in rendering judgment non obstante veredicto for defendant was proper in this case if defendant was entitled to an instructed verdict at the close of the evidence. Rule 301, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.

We hold that the defendant was entitled to an instructed verdict in this case at the close of all the evidence and therefore to a judgment non obstante veredicto because plaintiff failed to offer evidence to show prima facie the existence of two essential elements of her cause of action.

Re: Essential Element No. 1

The no duty doctrine is applicable to the facts of this case. That doctrine is fully discussed and explained in Halepeska v. Callihan Interests, Inc., 371 S.W.2d 368 (Tex.Sup., 1963); Adam Dante Corporation v. Sharpe, 483 S.W.2d 452 (Tex.Sup., 1972); and in Massman-Johnson v. Gundolf, 484 S.W.2d 555 (Tex.Sup., 1972).

The following is from the opinion in the Massman-Johnson v. Gundolf case, supra, at page 556: “But, a defendant owes no duty to an invitee who actually knows and appreciates the nature and extent of a specific danger or who is charged in law with such knowledge. One is charged in law with that knowledge and appreciation if the condition is open and obvious to the invitee.” (Emphasis ours.)

It was not proven here as a matter of law that plaintiff had actual knowledge of the presence of the platform on the sidewalk. There was evidence that she actually did not know of its presence.

However, the undisputed evidence in this case showed that this platform over which plaintiff fell was a large object, being several inches tall, about 6 feet long, and from 2 to 3(4 feet wide; and that it was lying in the open, in the middle of the sidewalk on which plaintiff was walking; that the plaintiff stumbled over the platform and fell in broad daylight when visibility was clear and at a time when there [390]*390was nothing present to obstruct her view of this object and that she just did not pay any attention to the platform as she walked along.

In order to show the existence and violation of a legal duty owed to her by the defendant in a case such as this the burden was on plaintiff to show not only that she did not actually know of and appreciate the danger, but also that the danger she is complaining of was not so open and obvious as to charge her, as a matter of law, with knowledge and appreciation of the danger of falling over the platform and getting hurt. See Adam Dante Corporation v. Sharpe, supra, at page 455. This was an essential element of the plaintiff’s cause of action.

We hold that under the undisputed evidence in this case the presence of the platform over which plaintiff stumbled and fell was so open and obvious as to charge plaintiff, as a matter of law, with knowledge and appreciation of the danger.. In addition to the three cases above cited the following cases support our holding: Medallion Stores, Inc. v. Eidt, 405 S.W.2d 417

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Bluebook (online)
511 S.W.2d 387, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marshall-v-buddies-super-markets-inc-texapp-1974.