Case Title: Whelchel v. Strangways

Citation: 550 P.2d 1228

Docket Number: 

State: oregon

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Date: 1976-06-17T00:00:00Z

Document:
550 P.2d 1228 (1976)
Kenneth WHELCHEL, Respondent,
v.
Malcolm H. STRANGWAYS and Shirley A. Strangways, Appellants.

Supreme Court of Oregon, In Banc[*].
Argued and Submitted February 6, 1976.
Decided June 17, 1976.
*1229 James C. Goode of Goode, Goode, Decker, Hinson & Ryan, P.C., Albany, argued the cause and filed briefs for appellants.
Nina E. Johnson, Eugene, argued the cause for resepondent. With her on the brief was Roy Dwyer, P.C., Eugene.
McALLISTER, Justice.
The plaintiff, Kenneth Whelchel, brought this action to recover damages from the defendant Malcolm H. Strangways and Shirley A. Strangways, his wife, for personal injuries caused by the alleged negligence of the defendants.
The defendants were the owners and operators of the Wren Tavern in the community of Wren, about five miles west of Corvallis. In his amended complaint plaintiff charged the defendants with negligence:
The jury, by a special verdict, found that the defendants were negligent and that plaintiff was not contributorily negligent. Judgment was then entered for plaintiff and defendants appeal.
Defendants first assign as error the denial of their motion for a directed verdict which raised the sufficiency of the evidence to make a case for the jury. Since the jury found for plaintiff we must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff.
The Wren Tavern is a small establishment 33 X 28 feet containing, inter alia, a bar, 14 bar stools, and two pool tables, and could accommodate, at the most, about 20 persons.
Although the evidence in some respects is disputed, there was evidence from which the jury could have found the facts hereinafter set out.
During the evening of October 27, 1973, prior to the sequence of events which culminated in the injury to plaintiff, there were 12 to 14 patrons in the bar. The tavern was orderly with no one visibly intoxicated or in any manner abusive. Malcolm Strangways was tending bar and was the only person working.
Sometime between seven o'clock and eight o'clock, p.m., Eldean Booth and Dan Fouts arrived at the tavern, ordered peanuts and beer and began playing pool. Shortly thereafter the plaintiff, Kenneth Whelchel, arrived with the three Spinney brothers and Francis Spinney ordered beer at the bar. Shortly after the arrival of the plaintiff and the Spinney brothers, the following incident occurred, which was described by Booth as follows:
Defendant Malcolm Strangways testified he observed this incident from behind the bar.
Booth testified that he returned to his spot near the bar, waiting his turn at the pool table. He testified that when his turn came he began to walk over to the pool table, but was "attacked" by Darrel Spinney. Booth testified that he hit back at Spinney. Francis Spinney then stepped in between the two men and testified that he did so in an attempt to stop the fight. The fight continued, however, with the men moving toward the door to the outside.
There was testimony that when the fight began between Darrel Spinney and Booth the plaintiff Whelchel walked over to where Dan Fouts was standing. Fouts was holding a pool cue by the small end with the butt end resting on his shoulder. The defendant testified that he heard the plaintiff tell Fouts that he "better not use the stick". A witness to the incident between plaintiff and Fouts testified as follows:
There was medical evidence that the blow to plaintiff's head caused serious permanent injury.
The jury could have found that from the time Spinney and Booth began fighting until the plaintiff was struck by the pool cue a period of at least three minutes elapsed. There was evidence from which the jury could have found that throughout this entire incident the defendant, Malcolm Strangways, remained behind the bar and took no action to either stop the fight or eject the men from the premises, nor did he attempt to prevent Fouts from using the pool cue as a weapon in the melee.
The jury could have found that the defendants were negligent if it found that there was sufficient time between the start of the fight and the injury to the plaintiff for the defendant Malcolm Strangways to have taken some affirmative action to stop the fight and to prevent the injury to the plaintiff. Whether Strangways should have attempted to stop the fight, to eject the fighters from the premises, and to prevent Fouts from using the pool cue as a weapon were all questions for the jury. We hold that the court did not err in denying defendants' motion for a directed verdict.
Defendants next contend that the court erred in admitting testimony of the conduct of the defendants during other fights and disorderly conduct which had previously occurred on the premises. The following is the testimony objected to, which was elicited from the witness Eckstein:
Defendants contend that the evidence of conduct at other times is not admissible if it has no direct relation to the events in dispute, citing Karsun v. Kelley, 258 Or. 155, 482 P.2d 533 (1971).
The jury could have found, however, from the testimony quoted above, that other fights had occurred in the tavern and that Malcolm Strangways, as bartender, had not taken reasonable precautions to protect the other patrons of the tavern during such disturbances.
The plaintiff contends that the evidence was offered to prove his allegation that the defendants were negligent in failing to provide an employe or employees to maintain order in the tavern. Plaintiff's position is supported by our holding in Beecher v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 267 Or. 496, 501, 517 P.2d 667, 670 (1973), where we said:
In Karsun v. Kelley we held that evidence of conduct on other occasions was admissible to show "intent, motive or knowledge." 258 Or. at 162, 482 P.2d 533 et seq.
The applicable rule is stated in Restatement of Torts 2d, § 344, as follows:
Comment f is particularly applicable here. It reads as follows:
See, also, Miller v. Staton, 58 Wash. 2d 879, 365 P.2d 333, 336 (1961), where it is said:
We hold that the court did not err in receiving evidence of the conduct of defendants when prior fights or disorderly conduct had occurred as bearing on the allegation that defendants failed to provide sufficient employees to afford reasonable protection to their patrons. The evidence of Strangways' failure to intervene in prior altercations was relevant to show defendants' knowledge that there would be no intervention unless defendants hired someone for that purpose.
The defendants next contend that the trial court erred in instructing the jury as follows:
Defendants contend that the above instruction amounted to giving a directed verdict for the plaintiff, because the jury could have reasonably found that the fight on the premises would result in an injury to someone. We think that defendants' criticism of the quoted instruction is unwarranted. The jury was properly instructed on foreseeability in accord with our holding in Danner v. Arnsberg, 227 Or. 420, 423, 362 P.2d 758, 759 (1961), where we stated:
We find no merit in defendants' objection to the instruction quoted above.
Defendants finally contend that the court erred in not instructing the jury that in returning the special verdict form the same nine of their number must agree on the answers to all questions in the verdict. It is true that the minimum legal number of jurors required for a valid verdict must be the same jurors who voted similarly on each separate issue which needed resolution. However, defendants in this case were given an opportunity by the trial court to have the jury polled on each separate issue and they declined to ask for such a poll. We hold they thereby waived their right to challenge the validity of the jury verdict.
Since we find no merit in the assignments of error, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
[*]  HOWELL, J., did not participate in the decision of this case.