Van Avery v. Platte Valley Land & Investment Co.

275 N.W. 288, 133 Neb. 314, 1937 Neb. LEXIS 59
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 1, 1937
DocketNo. 30026
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 275 N.W. 288 (Van Avery v. Platte Valley Land & Investment Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Avery v. Platte Valley Land & Investment Co., 275 N.W. 288, 133 Neb. 314, 1937 Neb. LEXIS 59 (Neb. 1937).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

This is an action at law to recover for personal injuries sustained’ by plaintiff, Van Avery, on March 1, 1935, as the result of falling into a “pit” or “stairway” located in the interior of a building owned by defendant, for some eight or nine years, and, by a lease in writing, leased to one Herman Monico, who then was, and for more than two years prior had been, in exclusive possession thereof. Plaintiff made the defendant landlord the sole defendant. The building leased was occupied by the tenant as a public garage, primarily for the day storage of’automobiles. A trial of the issues involved to a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff, and, from the order of the trial court overruling its motion for a new trial, the defendant appeals.

The record establishes the following:

Plaintiff called at the garage conducted by Herman Monico on the 1st day of March, 1935, about 4:30 p. m. This is a brick building situated at the southwest corner of the intersection of Seventeenth and Jackson streets in the city of Omaha, Nebraska, and is constructed on the north 80 feet of lots 1 and 2, in block 5, of Kountze & Ruth Addition to Omaha. The large entrance for receiving automobiles is in the north wall. The building, the evidence indicates, extends east to west. A brick partition wall extending from the north to the south wall divided the building into two rooms, at least, the exact dimensions of which are not disclosed by the record, but the larger of which, [317]*317extending eastward from this partition to the west wall of the building, constituted the garage proper. The evidence discloses no openings admitting light in the west wall. Some ten feet east of the southwest corner of the room a brick partition connecting with, and built at right angles with, the south wall of the garage, extending from floor to ceiling of the room, projects into it for a distance of some ten or twelve feet. The floor is composed of cinders. Resting on its edge on the floor, extending from the base of the projecting wall west to the west wall, at the time of the accident, a 2 by 12 plank was fastened. The irregularities of the floor at this point were such that the distance from the top of the black cinder floor to the top of this plank as it was in place varied from about four inches to nine or ten inches. The' three walls were on the west, south and east sides of what is referred to in the evidence as the “pit,” which in fact was the open flight of stairs leading to the engine room containing the heating plant of the building. The plank furnished the protection on the fourth side. The evidence is without contradiction that the space within the garage along the west wall immediately northward was wholly devoted to the storage of automobiles. Here the automobiles were ordinarily backed to the west wall and, parallel to each other, extended eastward into the garage. North of and immediately adjacent to this plank was the stall or place in which the automobile of witness Ralph C. Phelps had been regularly since 1933 daily placed and kept. This automobile when in its usual and proper position stood with its rear close to the west wall and its front extending just beyond the projecting brick wall already mentioned. In this situation it formed, together with the other three brick walls, a practical barrier to the so-called “pit” or “stairway.” In the three walls last mentioned as constituting the surroundings on three sides of the stairway, there were no windows or openings for the admission of light to the space thus inclosed. While electric fixtures were provided for lighting this part of the premises, they were not lighted at the time of the accident, and the exact sitúa[318]*318tion of the cars at that moment, in the southwest corner of the garage and along the west wall thereof, is a matter of disputed evidence. The inclosing wall and absence of artificial lights created within the space thus inclosed, according to plaintiff’s evidence, such a pall of darkness in the southwest corner of the garage, especially in the space included within the surrounding walls referred to, that said “pit” was dark, obscured and concealed. But it must be admitted that there was nothing to indicate that this portion of the garage was devoted to any purpose whatever save for the placing and storage of automobiles. Immediately east of the east wall inclosing the pit was a space illuminated by a window or opening in the south wall of the garage.

After entering the large north door of the garage, plaintiff proceeded at once to the “office.” This office was a construction about six foot square, with windows on two sides and a door, supplied with- a desk, chairs, and stove for heat, located about the center of the garage and devoted to the1 purpose its name implies. Herman Monico, Sr., the proprietor of the garage, was absent, but Herman Monico, Jr., a youth of 17 and a son of the proprietor, “who worked in the garage,” was sitting therein. Without in any manner announcing the purpose of his visit, plaintiff inquired of young Monico where his father, Herman, was. The son replied, “He is out in the back room,” and at the same time pointed toward the west wall of the garage and in the general direction of the north door in the west wall, which was the only door in sight in that wall from the position that young man then occupied. This door was located from 75 to 100 feet from the front of the building. Plaintiff testifies that on receiving this information, without in any manner announcing his business or purpose, he left the little office and walked straight west “to the large door” in the west wall, or the door covered with canvas, “pushed the canvas to one side and called ‘Herman’ ” and “tried to get hold of Herman.” Looking into the dark southwest corner of the building, the plaintiff discovered a closed door in [319]*319the west wall near its junction with the south wall of the garage. He turned southward and walked toward it. Plaintiff testifies that he did not look down as he passed along; that he did not see the 2 by 12 plank that constituted a part of the north barrier to the pit; that “his head was about even with his vision,” and he looked straight out. He first testified that he knew of no cars at this time parked along the west side of the garage. His attention was then called to his deposition previously taken, covering the facts relating to the accident in suit, in which the following question was propounded: “Were there many cars parked on the main floor of the garage at the time you first went into the office to talk to the boy?” To which he had replied, “There were several that were parked on the west side.” His memory being thus refreshed, he then replied, “Yes, I would say several were.” But plaintiff is unable to locate these cars in their relative positions along the west wall. He testifies further, however, that when getting no response to his call for “Herman” through the door from which he had removed the canvas, he “decided he must be in another room,” and that the closed door in the extreme southwest corner he had seen was the door leading to a back room, and he walked toward it, and the next thing he knew he was tumbling into space. Herman Monico, Jr., from his position at the office, was the only other eyewitness to the accident. That young man testifies that at the time of the accident four automobiles were backed up to the west wall of the garage, extending to the eastward; that the Phelps car was in place immediately north of the “pit;” that Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
275 N.W. 288, 133 Neb. 314, 1937 Neb. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-avery-v-platte-valley-land-investment-co-neb-1937.