Title: Bazzano v. Killington Country Village, Inc.

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

Bazzano v. Killington Country Village, Inc. (2002-234); 175 Vt. 534; 830 A.2d 24

2003 VT 46

[Filed 14-May-2003]

                                 ENTRY ORDER

                                 2003 VT 46

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 2002-234

                              MARCH TERM, 2003

  Jill Bazzano	                       }	APPEALED FROM:
                                       }
                                       }
       v.	                       }	Windsor Superior Court
                                       }	
  Killington Country Village, Inc.     }
                                       }	DOCKET NO. 91-2-98 Wrcv

                                                Trial Judge: Alan W. Cook

             In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       ¶  1.  Plaintiff in this personal injury action appeals from a
  judgment based on a jury verdict in favor of defendant.  Plaintiff contends
  the court erred in: 1) allowing testimony concerning the absence of prior
  accidents; 2) admitting a physician's report into evidence; 3) instructing
  the jury on plaintiff's burden of proof and comparative negligence; and 4)
  instructing on the effect of a safety statute violation.  We affirm.

       ¶  2.  In February 1996, plaintiff Jill Bazzano and a friend went to
  the Back Behind Saloon Restaurant in the town of Bridgewater after a day of
  skiing in Killington.  Plaintiff and her friend were seated in the back of
  the restaurant, in the "caboose" section.  Plaintiff testified that she
  lost her footing as she descended the caboose's stairway on the way to the
  restroom.  Because there was no handrail, she claimed that she reached up
  for the support pole overhead and wrenched her right shoulder, causing
  immediate and severe pain.  After returning to her table and completing her
  meal, plaintiff left the restaurant and returned home to Connecticut.  The
  next day, plaintiff went to a hospital emergency room and was diagnosed
  with a torn rotator cuff.  She subsequently underwent two surgeries on her
  shoulder, followed by two intense courses of physical therapy.  Plaintiff
  filed a negligence action against defendant Killington Country Village,
  Inc. d/b/a The Back Behind Saloon Restaurant.  After a four day trial, the
  jury returned a special verdict in favor of defendant.  The jury found
  plaintiff fifty-one percent negligent and defendant forty-nine percent
  negligent, resulting in no award of damages to plaintiff.  12 V.S.A. §
  1036.  This appeal followed.
   
       ¶  3.  Plaintiff first contends the court erred in allowing
  defendant to present testimony that no prior accidents had occurred on the
  stairs in order to prove the absence of a defect under Mobbs v. Central
  Vermont Railway, Inc., 155 Vt. 210, 583 A.2d 566 (1990).  In Mobbs, we held
  that "[g]enerally, when the party seeking admission of the evidence can
  show substantial similarity of conditions, evidence of no prior accidents
  is admissible to show '(1) absence of the defect or condition alleged, (2)
  the lack of a causal relationship between the injury and the defect or
  condition charged, (3) the nonexistence of an unduly dangerous situation,
  or (4) want of knowledge (or of grounds to realize) the danger.' " Id. at
  226-27, 583 A.2d  at 575.

       ¶  4.  Here, the restaurant's prior owner of  twenty-five years and
  two long?time employees all testified that they had no knowledge of anyone
  falling on the stairs prior to the plaintiff's accident. Plaintiff argues
  that the testimony was unreliable to establish the absence of prior
  accidents, and that Mobbs requires a documented safety record for such
  evidence to be admissible.  Although Mobbs involved railroad safety
  records, nothing in the opinion requires documented records to the
  exclusion of the testimony of an owner or employee based upon his or her
  recollection.  Indeed, Mobbs relied upon Erickson v. Walgreen Drug Co.,