Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/255/273/411330/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 12:51:32+00:00

Document:
M. Mitchell Bourquin, Guernsey Carson, San Francisco, Cal., McCune, Hiaasen, Kelley & Crum, Carl A. Hiaasen, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for appellant.
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, Samuel L. Holmes, San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.
The appellants, who are husband and wife, and residents and citizens of Florida, brought this action against appellee Matson Navigation Company, a California corporation, to recover damages resulting from a fall which Mrs. Allen suffered while a passenger upon the Matson Steamship Lurline.
Mrs. Allen sought damages for personal injuries received by her in the fall, and Mr. Allen sought recovery for sums expended for the care and treatment, and for the loss of the society, services and consortium of his wife. Upon trial before a jury a verdict was returned in favor of each plaintiff and judgments entered thereon. The defendant had moved for directed verdicts in its favor, upon which the court reserved ruling, and after verdict and judgment against it, it moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The motion was granted, and judgment notwithstanding the verdict was entered. It is from that judgment that this appeal is taken.
Plaintiffs went to trial upon a complaint which alleged that on October 1, 1953, while the ship was being docked and berthed in San Francisco, and before the discharge of her passengers, and when plaintiffs were passing over a landing upon a stairway, Mrs. Allen slipped and fell and suffered the injuries complained of. These, it was alleged, were the direct and proximate result of defendant's negligent maintenance of the stairway and landing in a dangerous and excessively slippery condition.
The time and place of Mrs. Allen's fall was not a subject of controversy. Early on the morning of the day mentioned, the passengers were notified that they would land at San Francisco immediately following breakfast. When the Allens arrived at E deck for breakfast they were told that they would be obliged to go to the upper A deck to obtain their landing permits before they were served breakfast. Accordingly they went to A deck, waited in line for their permits, and then started to descend to E deck. Finding a large crowd waiting for the elevators they decided to walk down the stairway. Mr. Allen walking next to the railing and Mrs. Allen next to him. Both testified that either he was holding Mrs. Allen's arm or she was holding his as they descended the stairs. Midway between each deck as they walked down the stairs they came to a landing. While they were walking across one of these landings Mrs. Allen fell backward, her feet slipping out in front of her so she was thrown flat upon her back.
"Q. (By Mr. Bourquin): Had you experienced any difficulty with your footing in crossing that landing on that morning or on earlier occasions when you crossed it? A. Well, I had had the sense of extreme caution in going down those steps not only that morning but other times.
"Q. What do you mean by that? A. Well, if you approach a slippery surface, naturally you have that sense of feeling of caution.
"Q. We want you to tell us, if you can, Mr. Johnson, was it just a little slippery or was it very slippery? What was it? A. I would say it was quite slippery."
"Q. Did you see or observe anything with respect to the condition of the stairs or the landing that morning now that you can tell us of before you fell? A. Just that I perceived that it was more or less shiny and slippery, and I realized I would have to use a little caution on it.
"Q. What do you mean when you say it was slippery? How was that apparent to you? A. Just to look at it — observation.
"Q. Had you noticed any such condition on the stair or landing on other occasions than that morning? A. Yes."
Mr. Allen's description of the surface of the landing was as follows: "Well, it was always very highly polished and very smooth, and the morning I came down I noticed when I hit the last step coming down that I looked down to see whether I had any more steps to go, and I saw this was just as shiny, high glossed as anything could be and I slowed up my steps, cut my steps a little shorter when I started on the flat surface."
A Mrs. Dykstra, a passenger on the ship who saw Mrs. Allen fall, said that Mrs. Allen's feet slipped out from under her and she fell with a thud, flat on her back, both feet flew forward together. She described the appearance of the surface of the landing as "extremely shiny."
The evidence further showed that the flooring of the landing where Mrs. Allen fell, as well as the stairs and the passage ways about the ship were covered with a rubber tile commonly used for such purposes; the floors of the lounge and the foyer of the ship were regularly mopped and waxed and buffed with a machine provided for that purpose; and the stairs and landings were swept and mopped. In its answer to interrogatories the defendant stated that "the stairway3 has been frequently mopped with water containing a small amount of Franklin's Rubber Gloss Cleaner and Ajax Cleanser has been used occasionally during such mopping. The water and cleaning substances have been applied * * * by means of a string mop. * * * The water and cleaning substances were then removed by the mop after the water had been wrung out of it."
The defendant called as an expert witness its marine engineer and naval architect who had drawn the specifications for the installation of the flooring and had supervised the work. He testified at some length with respect to the material known as rubber tile which had been used on this floor, saying that it was the most satisfactory type of flooring for such a ship, considering the factors of wear, appearance and safety; that such tile, in its original form without having wax or other dressing applied to it does not have a glossy surface, — a glossy appearance that gloss is associated with products added to the surface of tile such as wax, but as for the tile itself, it does not have a glossy surface, — a glossy appearance on rubber tile comes from waxing and dressings.
Plainly enough as a carrier it was the duty of the defendant here to exercise extraordinary vigilance and the highest skill to secure the safe conveyance of the passengers. As stated in Pennsylvania Co. v. Roy, 102 U.S. 451, 456, 26 L. Ed. 141: "For the slightest negligence or fault in this regard, from which injury results to the passenger, the carrier is liable in damages." In California the general rule in this regard has been codified in Civil Code § 2100 to recite that a carrier of persons for reward must use "the utmost care and diligence for their safe carriage."
There is no doubt that there was substantial evidence which the jury was entitled to credit that this floor where Mrs. Allen fell was slippery. Just why it was slippery was not precisely developed, but a substantial amount of testimony was produced to disclose that it was slippery in the sense that it had a tendency to cause slipping. Those who walked on it testified that it was slippery. As Mrs. Allen put it, "I would more or less slip." Johnson said he had the sense of extreme caution as he traversed the landing; that it was "quite slippery"; that it looked slippery and rather highly polished. To Mr. Allen it was "high and shiny"; "very highly polished and very smooth"; and as he stepped on it on that occasion it was "just as shiny, high glossed as anything could be."
It is suggested that this testimony that the floor was slippery must be disregarded, first, because it is not shown that the witnesses who testified concerning it had the requisite knowledge to give such testimony, and second, because such testimony would be a mere opinion which was inadmissible. The contention seems to be that one who merely walks over a floor is not thereby qualified to testify whether it was slippery or not.
Dealing with this subject, Prof. McCormick in his handbook on Evidence, (1954) p. 23, says: "It is believed that the standard actually applied by the trial judges of today approaches more nearly the principle espoused by Wigmore, namely, that the opinion should be rejected only when it is superfluous in the sense that it will be of no value to the jury."
Mr. Wigmore has discussed at length this question and has stated with emphasis his view that the opinion rule should not generally exclude a witness' testimony as to such things as the corporal appearance of persons and things; the capacity or tendency of an act or a machine; the probability or possibility of an event, form, identity, speed, time, size, weight and direction. See Wigmore on Evidence, 3d Ed., §§ 1974 to 1978.
Most decisions excluding testimony on these matters under the opinion rule Wigmore regards as absurd, saying, in § 1974: "The exclusionary rulings here abound particularly in absurdities and quibbles, — highly fit for cynical amusement, were not the names of Justice and Truth involved in their consideration. One may wonder how long these solemn farces will be perpetrated in our law." His idea of what he considers the appropriate view he illustrates by quoting (in § 1977) from Hardy v. Merrill, 56 N.H. 227, 241, as follows: "All concede the admissibility of the opinions of non-professional men upon a great variety of unscientific questions arising every day and in every judicial inquiry. These are questions of identity, handwriting, quantity, value, weight, measure, time, distance, velocity, form, size, age, strength, heat, cold, sickness, and health; questions, also, concerning various mental and moral aspects of humanity such as disposition and temper, anger, fear, excitement, intoxication, veracity, general character, and particular phases of character, and other conditions and things, both moral and physical, too numerous to mention."
The California rule favoring the admissibility of such evidence should be applied here under Rule 43(a), Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. If a floor is slippery it seems obvious that it would not be practicable to describe its condition otherwise than as a totality of all that the witness observed. The situation is like the illustration given in the California case of Holland v. Zollner, supra. Reference is there made to a witness who tried to state the age of an individual by describing his grey hair, his wrinkled face, his hesitant gait. As the court pointed out, an itemized description of that character still fails to tell the fact and hence the witness is permitted to give an opinion as to the age of the man he has described. As Wigmore says, to exclude such testimony is absurd. We think here the court properly permitted the witnesses to testify as they did that the floor was "high and shiny", "highly glossy", "shiny high glossed as anything could be", "quite slippery", "I would more or less slip", "it was awfully slippery".
We are forced to the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence before the jury to permit a finding of fact on their part that the floor in question was sufficiently slippery to make it unsafe and that its maintenance in that condition constituted negligence on the part of the defendant.10 "If there is substantial evidence both for the plaintiff and the defendant it is for the jury to determine what facts are established." Butte Copper & Zinc Co. v. Amerman, 9 Cir., 157 F.2d 457. "A motion for a directed verdict may only be granted when a verdict the other way would have to be set aside by the court. * * * The same conditions must exist to warrant the granting of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict even where the court reserves ruling on the motion for a directed verdict." Standard Accident Ins. Co. of Detroit, Mich. v. Winget, 9 Cir., 197 F.2d 97, 100.
The evidence shows that the defendant's steward examined and inspected the floor on the morning in question and before the accident occurred. The jury were authorized to infer that the condition of the floor at the time of the accident was the same as it had been throughout that morning when it was inspected and when the work on it had been completed. "Where the condition is of such character that a brief lapse of time would not affect it materially, the subsequent existence of the condition may give rise to an inference that it previously existed." F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Seckinger, 5 Cir., 125 F.2d 97, 98. See Wigmore on Evidence, 3d ed., § 437.
In Nicola v. Pacific G. & E. Co., 50 Cal. App. 2d 612, 123 P.2d 529, 531, the court was commenting upon the evidence in a case in which a plaintiff invitee claimed to have slipped and fallen upon the defendant's floor. In that case the evidence of slipperiness was substantially stronger than that present here for there was evidence that other witnesses had previously slipped upon the same floor. The court had occasion to comment upon the evidence and its sufficiency in certain particulars. It said: "It is the degree of slipperiness that determines whether the condition is reasonably safe. This is a question of fact." The court also said: "While appellants' janitor testified that he had not used wax on the floor within six weeks before the accident, there was other evidence from which it could have been inferred that the slippery condition of the floor on the day of the accident was due to wax or perhaps soap that had been used on it."
In this case the verdict of the jury was returned on November 23, 1956. The order of the judge granting the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict was not filed until December 26 or slightly more than a month later. The order indicates upon its face that at that time the trial judge was under the mistaken apprehension that all evidence to the effect that the floor appeared to be "slippery" had been stricken from the record. As we have shown, that statement is incorrect and it would have been error to exclude such testimony. This may in part account for the different view which we take from that of the trial judge with respect to the sufficiency of the evidence here.
The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded with direction to enter judgment upon the verdicts.
The petition for rehearing would have this court modify its opinion to permit the district court to consider anew the defendant-appellee's motion for new trial. Our decision does not reach that question. The district court will be free upon remand to consider said motion upon its merits. For the reason that the petition requests something that is unnecessary the petition is denied. This court does not intend to intimate that the said motion should or should not be granted.
"The Court: It also calls for an opinion and conclusion. Why don't you ask the witness, if I may suggest it to you, counsel, how it was, by what senses she determined the flooring was slippery, — by her eyesight, by her feeling or by whatever it is, what sense she used in perceiving the condition of the flooring, if that is what you are trying to get at?
"Q. Can you answer the question that the Court suggested? A. I will answer it.
"Q. Please. A. Not only looking at it, the high polish and slipperiness of it, but my feet when I stepped on it, I realized I would have to be careful, — the way my feet hit that flooring, I realized I would have to be careful.
"Q. But you don't tell us what way you came to that realization; that is what we want to know. A. When I stepped on the flooring I could tell that I would have to be careful, I would more or less slip.
"Q. In other words, the footing underneath — Mr. Holmes: May that go out, your Honor, as a conclusion? It is still the opinion of the witness; she hasn't stated any facts.
"Mr. Bourquin: She said she more or less slipped.
"The Court: The last part of the answer is responsive; the first part is not. That she realized that she would have to be cautious is her conclusion. That may go out. The last part of the answer that she more or less slipped may stay in, because that is a statement of fact.
"The Witness: That is true.
"Mr. Bourquin: On earlier occasions in traversing the stairway and landing in question had your feet more or less slipped? A. Correct, yes.
"Q. Until you took greater precautions? A. Yes.
"Q. And was that the same situation that you encountered this day on the landing that you fell? A. Yes."
"Q. No recollection at all? A. No.
"Q. Do you remember what color it was? A. No.
"Q. Do you remember whether it was dark or light? A. No, sir.
"Q. You have no recollection of that floor landing at all? A. No, sir.
"Q. That is the floor covering on the landing in either location? A. No, sir.
"Q. Why do you say it was slippery if you have no recollection of it? A. When I looked when I was taking my last step on the steps there my eyes looked down there to see if I had another step to go down. I didn't look for color.
"Q. Sir? A. I didn't look for color or anything; I knew it was awfully slippery.
"Q. That was your mental impression? A. That's right.
"Q. From looking at it? A. My impression from looking at it.
"Q. It had a dull gloss to it, didn't it? A. No, it was high and shiny."
"It is said the exception quoted applies to questions of identity, handwriting, quantity, value, weight, measure, time, distance, velocity, form, size, age, strength, heat, cold, sickness, and health; questions, also, concerning various mental and moral aspects of humanity, such as disposition and temper, anger, fear, excitement, intoxication, veracity, general character, etc. * * * The reason underlying the exception is that, from the very nature of the subject in issue, it cannot be stated or described in such language as will enable persons not eye-witnesses to form an accurate judgment in regard to it. * * * The paucity of language, and the incompetency of witnesses to describe graphically the photograph left upon the mind by observed facts, renders every effort to convey to a jury an adequate conception of the ultimate fact futile, except by announcing the conclusion in their own minds."
That was a case where the plaintiff who fell down on the stairway of a building testified that she lost her balance and stumbled head first down the stairs. She did not know what caused her to stumble but she said the stairs were slippery. The court held that no inference of negligence rises from the mere proof of a fall; that the burden rested upon the plaintiff to show the existence of a dangerous condition and that the defendant knew or should have known of it; and that no inference of negligence arose merely from the proof that the floor was slippery in the absence of proof of some foreign substance on the floor was known to the owner. The court said [103 Cal. App. 2d 143, 229 P.2d 105]: "The minimum duty of a plaintiff is to show that the stairway was in fact unsafe and that she fell because of that condition."
Pogue v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 5 Cir., 242 F.2d 575, 582: "The kind of jury trial to which the parties are entitled in Federal Courts under Rules 38 and 39 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., is that preserved by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, to which the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S. Ct. 817, 82 L. Ed. 1188, is of course subservient. Wright v. Paramount-Richards Theatres, 5 Cir., 198 F.2d 303, 305; Reuter v. Eastern Air Lines, 5 Cir., 226 F.2d 443, 445; Reynolds v. Pegler, 2 Cir., 223 F.2d 429, 433, 434."
These cases may explain the extent to which the Supreme Court has indicated it is prepared to go in sustaining the sufficiency of the evidence to support a jury verdict in cases where the inferior federal courts have set verdicts aside. See for example the following, none of which are F.E.L.A. cases: Williams v. Carolina Life Insurance Co., 5 Cir., 210 F.2d 477, reversed at 348 U.S. 802, 75 S. Ct. 30, 99 L. Ed. 633; Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co. v. Swafford, 5 Cir., 220 F.2d 901, reversed at 350 U.S. 807, 76 S. Ct. 80, 100 L. Ed. 725; Eastern Air Lines, Inc., v. Union Trust Co., 95 U.S.App.D.C. 189, 221 F.2d 62, reversed at 350 U.S. 907, 76 S. Ct. 192, 100 L. Ed. 796; Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Gibson, 5 Cir., 232 F.2d 13, reversed at 352 U.S. 874, 77 S. Ct. 16, 1 L. Ed. 2d 77.

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