Title: Roach v. Benson

State: alaska

Issuer: Alaska Supreme Court

Document:

503 P.2d 1392 (1972) Geraldine Fetters ROACH, Appellant, v. John BENSON et al., Appellees. No. 1655. Supreme Court of Alaska. December 15, 1972. W. Clark Stump, Ketchikan, for appellant. Peter R. Ellis, Ketchikan, for appellees. Before RABINOWITZ, C.J., and CONNOR, ERWIN and BOOCHEVER, JJ. ERWIN, Justice. This is an appeal by Geraldine Fetters Roach in an action to recover for personal injuries sustained by her as a result of a fall while on defendants' property. Judgment for the defendant property owners was entered by the superior court for the First Judicial District sitting without a jury at Ketchikan, Alaska, on December 7, 1971, on the grounds that Mrs. Roach was contributorily negligent in causing the fall. Plaintiff, a fifty-one year old woman, arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska, with her son at 7:00 a.m. on February 4, 1970, enroute to a logging camp where her son was employed. They planned to store appellant's car in Ketchikan and fly to the camp the same day. *1393 After taking care of some preliminary matters, the plaintiff and her son proceeded to the defendants' car storage area. There they were met by the resident manager and conducted onto the premises. The car was parked and the manager was paid $15.60 for one month's car storage rental. Plaintiff's son requested permission from the manager to use the phone to call a cab to take them to the airlines. The manager said the phone was upstairs and that it would be just as close to use the back entrance. The manager accompanied plaintiff and her son to the back entrance, unlocked the door, and followed them outside. It was raining and the plaintiff and Mrs. Norman conversed while standing underneath a shed attached to the storage building. Plaintiff's son preceded her from under the shed onto the dock area and noticed a large spout of water coming off the roof. To avoid it he had to step to the left and walk around the spout of water. There were no gutters or rain spouts along the edge of the shed, and the stream of water coming down from the shed was fairly heavy on the corner by the stairwell but decreased as it went down the roof of the building. Plaintiff's son stood and waited in the rain for approximately a minute and then called to his mother telling her they had better go. Plaintiff proceeded from under the shed roof onto the dock area. Plaintiff testified that as she started to walk out from under the shed roof area she noticed water coming from somewhere. Her testimony established that she tried to avoid the water, or most of it, and that she then slipped and fell sustaining a trimalleotar fracture of her right ankle. The trial was held before the court, without a jury, on the question of liability alone. After the plaintiff had presented her case, the defendants introduced two large pictures of the slip and fall area and requested a view of the scene of the accident. After the judge had viewed the scene the defense rested. After briefs were filed the court heard closing arguments on the issue of liability. After reviewing the evidence, the trial court concluded that the defendants were negligent and further, that plaintiff was contributorily negligent thus barring her recovery for damages. The judge stated the findings of contributory negligence in the following language: Appellant's argument on appeal is that the trial judge's finding of contributory negligence was clearly erroneous. Contributory negligence has been defined as conduct of the plaintiff which falls below the standard to which he should conform for his own protection and which is a legal cause contributing to the harm suffered by plaintiff. Plaintiff's conduct is viewed as a legally contributing cause together with defendant's negligence for plaintiff's injury.[1] Plaintiff is required to conform his conduct to that of the reasonably prudent man,[2] and a failure to do so is contributory negligence. Contributory negligence is an affirmative defense and must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence.[3] However, defendant is not required to put on witnesses of his own to establish contributory negligence, but may establish that plaintiff *1394 was contributorily negligent by plaintiff's own evidence or inferences favorable to defendant "which appear from the presentation of the plaintiff's case either on direct or cross-examination."[4] Civil Rule 52(a) establishes the limits of review on the findings of a trial court sitting without a jury. It provides in pertinent part: This rule has been interpreted to require this court to find clear error in the trial court's judgment before the findings could be classified as erroneous and set aside.[5] The defendants must demonstrate that the plaintiff is contributorily negligent by a preponderance of the evidence.[6] If there was no evidence from which he could reasonably infer that contributory negligence existed, a finding of contributory negligence would be clearly erroneous and this court should reverse the decision.[7] Moreover this evidence must be more than knowledge of the existence of a hazard. In Cummins v. King & Sons, 453 P.2d 465, 467 (Alaska 1969), this court held: With this criteria in mind we have made a thorough search of the record to determine if there was any evidence from which a trier of fact could draw a reasonable inference of contributory negligence.[8] Such a review does not reveal any unreasonable conduct on behalf of appellant which could be deemed contributory negligence. Appellant simply tried to avoid a visible hazard and slipped and fell while doing so. There is no testimony in the record which indicated haste, hazardous movements, or a failure to exercise due care on the part of the plaintiff. We thus conclude that such a finding was clearly erroneous on the factual record here presented. The decision of the trial court is reversed and this case is remanded for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion. The only testimony on this issue is as follows: [1] Bertram v. Harris, 423 P.2d 909, 914 n. 10 (Alaska 1967). [2] W. Prosser, The Law of Torts § 65 at 419 (4th Ed. 1971). [3] In Harris v. Barrett & Lesh, Inc., 426 P.2d 331, 334 (Alaska 1967), (a jury instruction to this regard was held proper); Ridgeway v. North Star Terminal & Stevedoring Co., 378 P.2d 647, 651 (Alaska 1963). [4] Smith v. Boen-Koon & Egge-Cummins Constr. Co., 384 P.2d 283, 286 (Alaska 1963). See Harris v. Barrett & Lesh, Inc., 426 P.2d 331, 333 (Alaska 1967). [5] Smith v. Boen-Koon & Egge-Cummins Constr. Co., 384 P.2d 283, 286 (Alaska 1963). Alaska follows the majority rule in this regard rather than the view that findings of negligence are not protected by Rule 52. See McAllister v. United States, 348 U.S. 19, 22-23, 75 S. Ct. 6, 99 L. Ed. 20, 23-24 (1954) and Wright and Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 2590 (1971). [6] The standard of appellate review of a finding of negligence or contributory negligence in a judge tried case is explained in 5A Moore's Federal Practice § 52.03[1] on page 2624. [7] An inference has been defined as "a fact or proposition deduced, by a process of reasoning, as a logical consequence from other established facts." Cummins v. King & Sons, 453 P.2d 465, 467 (Alaska 1969). [8] Included in the appendix are pertinent parts of the testimony which reflect upon this issue. It should be noted that the person accompanying appellant to the rear door died before this case was presented and her testimony was not available to the court.