Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Wooley

94 N.E.2d 677, 121 Ind. App. 60, 1950 Ind. App. LEXIS 212
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 2, 1950
Docket18,037
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 94 N.E.2d 677 (Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Wooley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Wooley, 94 N.E.2d 677, 121 Ind. App. 60, 1950 Ind. App. LEXIS 212 (Ind. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

WlLTROUT, J.

Appellee brought this action to recover damages for injuries resulting from a fall in appellant’s store while she was a customer therein. It is alleged that appellant negligently caused its floor to become slippery and dangerous by improperly applying a floor dressing in too great quantities and in failing .to remove excess dressing. or place another substance on the .floor. Trial by jury resulted in a $2500 verdict for appellee.

Appellant assigns as error the overruling of its motion for new trial, the grounds set forth being: (1) rulings concerning improper statements made by appellee’s counsel during argument to the jury; (2) excessive damages; (3) insufficiency of the evidence; (4) that the verdict is contrary to Jaw; (5) the giving by the court of certain of its own instructions; (6) refusal to give certain of appellant’s tendered instruc *64 tions; (7) overruling appellant’s motions for a directed verdict; (8) the admission of certain testimony and the refusal to admit other testimony.

The evidence most favorable to the appellee discloses the facts hereinafter set forth. For over eight years appellant has used a floor dressing on its floor, which dressing is described as a thin oil bearing the trade name of “Mycosheen.” The floor consists of boards approximately four inches in width. The dressing was applied every two or three weeks. The floor has a brown color.

Appellee slipped and fell on the floor on Thursday, May 29, 1947. The last application of the oil before that was on the previous Monday night, at which time the store manager supervised its application by another of appellant’s employees. The oil was in a five gallon container, which was placed on the east side of the store. A mop was laid on the floor and oil poured on it. The oil was then applied to the aisles with this mop. Two to four gallons of the oil are used on the floor each time it is applied. Following its application a second mop was used over the floor for the purpose of removing excess oil. This second mop was not wrung out. The employee who applied the oil testified that he didn’t know whether the second mop removed the excess oil, but as far as he remembered it did, and also testified that if there was oil on the floor it could be slick in spots.

On the day of the accident appellee went into appellant’s store to make a purchase. There is a stairway at the east end of the building, which appellant intended to use. Before she got to the stairway she slipped and fell. The heel of her shoe made a semicircular mark on the floor. She testified that “my heel just buried in the oil on the floor clear down to thé grain”; that where her heel slipped, the oil “just *65 oozed”; that the oil “was on there pretty heavy”; “It looked like it wasn’t smoothed down”; “It looked like it was still standing on the floor”; “Where my foot slid in the oil there was great gobs of it.” Her clothes had large brown oily stains. Appellee’s observations of the floor were made after her fall.

The evidence and the inferences which legitimately flow therefrom, in our opinion, are sufficient to establish the fact that the floor where appellee fell was covered with an excess amount of the oily floor dressing, which caused the floor to be slippery and dangerous, and that the last application- of this was made by appellant approximately three days before the accident. :

Appellant insists that there was no evidence that it knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known of the condition of the..floor prior to the accident.

“The inviter will be charged with knowledge of a dangerous condition created by his own negligence or the negligence of his employee acting within the scope of his employment. . .” 65 C. J. S., Negligence, § 51, p. 545. J. C. Penney, Inc. v. Keller meyer (1939), 107 Ind. App. 253, 19 N. E. 2d 882, 22 N. E. 2d 899; Glenn v. Grant Co. (1935), 129 Neb. 173, 260 N. W. 811; Bury v. Woolworth Co. (1930), 129 Kan. 514, 283 Pac. 917.

The evidence relative to appellant’s negligence, appellee’s contributory negligence, appellee’s assumption of the risk, and whether appellant’s negligence was the proximate cause of the injury, was conflicting. These questions were for the jury. Robertson Bros. Department Store v. Stanley (1950), 228 Ind. 372, 90 N. E. 2d 809. The verdict was sustained by sufficient evidence and was not contrary to law. There was no error in refusing to direct a verdict *66 for appellant. For a case in which the facts were remarkably similar to the ones in this case, see Phelps v. Montgomery Ward & Co. (1937), 231 Mo. App. 595, 107 S. W. 2d 939. Other cases supporting our conclusion are : Hulett v. Great A. & P. Tea Co. (1941), 299 Mich. 59, 299 N. W. 807; Galarno v. Great A. & P. Tea Co. (1932), 260 Mich. 113, 244 N. W. 250; Lamb v. Purity Stores, Inc. (1932), 119 Cal. App. 690, 7 P. 2d 197; Trottier v. Neisner Brothers, Inc. (1933), 284 Mass. 336, 187 N. E. 619; Molnar v. Scott-Burr Stores (1940), 33 Ohio L. Abs. 142, 33 N. E. 2d 418.

Appellant urges that the damages assessed by the jury in the sum of $2500.00 are excessive. Appellee suffered a broken leg (Potts fracture). The leg was in a cast for six weeks. She was on crutches for two weeks, and then walked with a cane. She suffered an injury to the pelvic region and abdomen, bruises on hip, wrenched and strained muscles, an enlarged ankle, and suffered pain from the date of the injury to the date of the trial, over two years later, especially in damp weather. We cannot say as a matter of law, as appellant urges that we do, in view of values in recent years, that the damages are so large as to lead to the belief that the assessment was caused by prejudice, passion, partiality, corruption, or misunderstanding of the evidence. We must hold that the damages assessed were not excessive.

During his final argument appellee’s counsel stated: “You can’t beat a million dollars. You have heard it said, you can’t beat a million dollars. Montgomery-Ward is a big corporation and it was expected that they would assert every effort to prevent evidence being brought before the jury and demand the greatest of loyalty from every employee.” Appellant moved “in view of the statement made” that the submission of the cause be set aside and that the jury be discharged for *67 the reason that the statement was so prejudicial and calculated to prejudice the jury that no instruction given by the court would be sufficient to cure it. The court overruled the motion and told the jury that objection was made to a statement by appellee’s counsel, telling the jury what the statement was that was objected to, and that, “The Court thinks that statement is improper and I am instructing you to disregard the statement. Under our system of law everybody is supposed to stand equally before the court and this sort of statement in my judgment should not have been made, and I am instructing you not to consider the statement.”

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Bluebook (online)
94 N.E.2d 677, 121 Ind. App. 60, 1950 Ind. App. LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montgomery-ward-co-v-wooley-indctapp-1950.