Perazzo v. Dayton Hasty-Tasty, Inc.

200 N.E.2d 706, 119 Ohio App. 453, 28 Ohio Op. 2d 72, 1962 Ohio App. LEXIS 534
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 11, 1962
Docket2703 and 2704
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 200 N.E.2d 706 (Perazzo v. Dayton Hasty-Tasty, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perazzo v. Dayton Hasty-Tasty, Inc., 200 N.E.2d 706, 119 Ohio App. 453, 28 Ohio Op. 2d 72, 1962 Ohio App. LEXIS 534 (Ohio Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

Kerns, J.

These appeals are from judgments of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County entered upon jury verdicts for the plaintiffs. The plaintiff Edith Perazzo was awarded $5,000 for personal injuries sustained in a fall on the defendant’s premises, and her husband, plaintiff John Gr. Perazzo, was awarded $1,000 for the loss incurred by him as the result of his wife’s injuries. The two cases were tried together and are consolidated on appeal.

In her second amended petition, the plaintiff Edith Perazzo says “that on March 14, 1960, she was a patron of the defendant corporation at 5020 Brandt Pike, Montgomery County, Ohio, where defendant corporation operates a restaurant; that in returning from the restaurant to her automobile parked in front of said restaurant and while on the premises operated and maintained by the defendant corporation, she slipped and fell on ice which was obscured to her vision by slush and water which accumulated on the defendant’s sidewalk as a result of the thawing of snow piled by the defendant on its property adjacent to said sidewalk * *

In the present appeal, six errors have been assigned, the first of which reads that “the trial court erred in not granting to defendant-appellant the ten (10) days provided by statute between the filing of a motion for summary judgment and the hearing on said motion.” This assignment of error is predicated upon Section 2311.041, Revised Code, which provides in part as follows:

“(B) The hearing on a motion for a summary judgment shall not be less than ten days after the date of the filing thereof. Notice of the filing and the date of the hearing of such motion shall be given by certified or registered mail, or personally, to the opposing party or his counsel of record at least five days prior to the hearing, unless waived. The adverse party prior to the day of hearing may file opposing affidavits. * * *”

The record discloses that these cases were given a trial date in May 1961. The assigned trial date was November 13, *455 1961. On November 9, 1961, tbe defendant filed a motion in each cause for summary judgment, and the motions were assigned for hearing on November 25,1961.

Thereafter, on November 10, 1961, the plaintiffs filed a motion requesting that the motions for summary judgments be considered as motions for judgments on the pleadings or as demurrers to the pleadings. The plaintiffs also waived the provision that a motion for summary judgment shall not be heard less than ten days after the filing thereof.

Subsequently, before proceeding to trial on November 13, 1961, but only four days after the motions for summary judgments were filed, the trial court overruled the plaintiffs’ motions and overruled the defendant’s motions for summary judgments.

Although Section 2311.041, Eevised Code, clearly requires that the hearing on a motion for a summary judgment shall not be less than ten days after the filing thereof, the defendant has failed to disclose, and we fail to perceive, how the rights of the defendant were prejudiced by the procedure adopted in the instant case. The ten-day provision was designed primarily for the protection of the adverse party rather than the movant. But here, the adverse party waived the requirement. And the movant apparently had nothing further to present in support of the motions. Under such circumstances, no reason existed for further delay. Furthermore, the evidence subsequently presented at the trial raised genuine issues of fact which clearly vindicated the trial court’s order overruling the motions for summary judgment, and this court must disregard any error which was not prejudicial to the rights of the defendant. See Section 2309.59, Eevised Code. Accordingly, the first assignment of error is overruled.

For its second assignment of error, the defendant challenges the following special instruction:

“Members of the jury, the court also charges you that in walking on the defendant’s sidewalk, Mrs. Perazzo was only required to use ordinary care and ordinary care does not require a person to anticipate another’s negligence.”

Specifically, the defendant contends that the charge is fatally defective in that “it fails to put upon plaintiff the burden of *456 using ordinary care under the circumstances” and “fails to state accurately and completely the law as to the duty to anticipate another’s negligence.”

The defendant makes no claim that the charge is erroneous, but only that it is incomplete. However, a special charge is not intended to cover every principle or all the law of the case. Hunter v. Brumby, 131 Ohio St., 443; Makranczy v. Gelfand, Admr., 109 Ohio St., 325; Swing, Trustee, v. Rose, 75 Ohio St., 355; Senn, Admx., v. Lockner, 91 Ohio App., 83. In the case of Deckant v. City of Cleveland, 155 Ohio St., 498, the court said :

“1. If a special instruction given by the court under Section 11420-1, General Code, correctly states the law pertinent to one or more of the issues of the case, the giving of it does not constitute error even though it is not a full and comprehensive statement of the law.”

To the same effect, see Makranczy v. Gelfand, Admr., 109 Ohio St., 325, where the fourth paragraph of the syllabus provides :

“4. Where a record discloses instructions before argument, given at plaintiff’s request, which are a correct statement of the law from plaintiff’s standpoint, but do not cover every branch and feature of the case, including the effect of affirmative defenses, but such affirmative defenses are fully covered in the general charge, the giving of such special instructions before argument is not prejudicially erroneous.”

Furthermore, it is the duty of the court to consider each special instruction in connection with other special instructions given upon the same subject. Wymer-Harris Construction Co. v. Glass, Admx., 122 Ohio St., 398; Deckant v. City of Cleveland, 155 Ohio St., 498. With this in mind, we have examined special instruction No. 3, as submitted by the defendant and allowed by the court, which reads as follows:

“If you find, members of the jury, that Mrs. Perazzo failed to use ordinary care for her own safety in walking into a puddle of water which she had previously observed, and if you find that her conduct proximately contributed in any degree to causing her fall, then you must return a verdict for the defendant, regardless of what the defendant did or failed to do.”

This instruction appears to embody any deficiencies which the defendant claims are fatal to special instruction No. 2. It *457 also appears from the general charge that the jury was instructed clearly and comprehensively upon that phase of the case to which special instruction No. 2 is directed. The second assignment of error is therefore without merit.

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Bluebook (online)
200 N.E.2d 706, 119 Ohio App. 453, 28 Ohio Op. 2d 72, 1962 Ohio App. LEXIS 534, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perazzo-v-dayton-hasty-tasty-inc-ohioctapp-1962.