Case Name: Ena Marie CHAUVIN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. UNITED STATES FIDELITY & GUARANTY CO., et al., Defendants and Appellants
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1969-05-22
Citations: 223 So. 2d 441
Docket Number: No. 2647
Parties: Ena Marie CHAUVIN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. UNITED STATES FIDELITY & GUARANTY CO., et al., Defendants and Appellants.
Judges: Before TATE, HOOD and CULPEP-PER, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 223
Pages: 441–452

Head Matter:
Ena Marie CHAUVIN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. UNITED STATES FIDELITY & GUARANTY CO., et al., Defendants and Appellants.
No. 2647.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Third Circuit.
May 22, 1969.
Rehearing Denied June 18, 1969.
Davidson, Meaux, Onebane & Donohoe, by Timothy J. McNamara, Lafayette, for defendants-appellants.
Koury & Judice, by Joseph A. Koury, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before TATE, HOOD and CULPEP-PER, JJ.

Opinion:
CULPEPPER, Judge.
Plaintiff, Mrs. Ena Marie Chauvin, claims damages for personal injuries sustained by her when she tripped and fell while on premises which were being used by Howard Reed for the operation of a business. The defendants are Reed and his liability insurer, United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company. The case was tried by jury, with the result that a verdict was rendered in favor of plaintiff for $4,000. A decree was signed by the trial judge in accordance with the verdict, and defendants have appealed. Plaintiff has answered the appeal praying that the amount of the award be increased.
The principal questions presented on this appeal are: (1) Was defendant Reed negligent in failing to maintain his business premises in a safe condition for invitees? and (2) Was plaintiff guilty of contributory negligence in failing to see the object over which she tripped, thus barring her from recovery?
The accident occurred about noon on February 9, 1966, in Lafayette, Louisiana, on property which had been leased to defendant Reed, and which was being used by Reed for the operation of a "Dairy Queen" business. The owner-lessor of the property is not a party to this suit. The Dairy Queen is a "drive-in" type business where food, beverages and ice cream are the principal commodities sold. The property which had been leased to defendant Reed, and on which this business was located, consisted of a relatively small building, about 18 feet wide by 30 feet deep, and a parking lot which practically surrounded the building. The building faced in a southwesterly direction on University Avenue.
There were no facilities for serving customers inside the building. Instead, the building was equipped with three service windows, through which customers standing on the outside of the building at these windows could be served. Two of these service windows were located at the front of the building, and the third such window was located on the southeast side of it.
An iron railing, about 24 inches high, had been installed across and parallel to the front of the building, the purpose of that railing being to prevent automobiles from being driven or parked too close to the building itself. The railing was about six feet from the front of the building, and a concrete walkway, about six feet wide, ran between the front of the building and this railing. There was a break or an opening in the iron railing directly in front of the building, which opening permitted customers approaching the building from the front to walk to either of the two front serving windows without having to step over the railing. The distance from the center of this opening in the iron railing to either side of the building was about nine feet.
Immediately before this accident occurred Mrs. Chauvin approached the front of the building and walked through the above described opening in the iron railing. She entered through this opening, turned to her right and walked in a southeasterly direction, on the six foot wide walkway which ran between the building and the railing, to a point about even with the east side, or the right front corner, of the building. At that point she tripped and fell over a "door", or a decorative piece of lumber, which had fallen from its upright position and was lying across her path. She contends that she sustained injuries as a result of that fall, and in this suit she claims damages for those injuries.
The object on which plaintiff tripped resembled a barn door. It was eight feet long, three feet wide and about three inches thick. The border around the outside edges of the door, and several cross pieces on it, were painted red, while the rest of the door was painted white.
Prior to the occurrence of this accident, this door had been used as a decorative piece on the building. It had been installed originally in an upright position at the right front corner of that structure, and two other doors like it had been installed on other corners of the edifice. All of these decorative doors were fastened to the building with metal straps and screws. Shortly before this accident occurred the decorative door at the right front corner of the building fell from its upright position, and it came to rest flat on the concrete walkway, extending from that corner of the building across what would have been an extension of the six foot passageway. After it had fallen, it blocked the end of that passageway to the extent that a person endeavoring to walk in a southeasterly direction on that passageway would have to step on or over the door in order to proceed beyond the right front corner of the building. The door, as it lay across the concrete passageway, extended about four inches above the surface of the concrete.
Mrs. Chauvin testified that she went to the Dairy Queen to buy an ice cream cone. She stated that when she walked through the opening in the iron railing immediately before the accident occurred, she saw a number of customers standing at the front service window which was located to her left. She felt that she would have difficulty getting waited on at that window, so she turned to her right and she proceeded to walk in a southeasterly direction on the six-foot passageway between the building and the iron railing, her purpose being to walk past the right serving window and to go around the front corner of the building to the side window where she hoped to be served sooner. She testified that she did not see the decorative door as it lay across the passageway, and that when she reached it she tripped on it and fell.
One of the reasons given by plaintiff for her failure to see the door over which she tripped is that the place was very crowded with people, who obstructed her view of the door itself and whose presence distracted her. Hence, an important factual issue is the number of people on the premises and the positions in which they were sitting or standing.
The evidence shows that, generally speaking, the place was crowded. The accident occurred during the noon hour, when this Dairy Queen usually does a large business. Many cars were parked in the parking area. A few people were seated along the rail across the front of the building. Customers were lined up at the window on the left, facing the front of the building, and standing in the passageway near the center.
Defendant makes much of confusion in plaintiff's testimony as to whether there were any customers standing at the service window on the right, who would have obstructed plaintiff's view of the door lying across the passageway. In her pretrial deposition, as well as her testimony at the trial ' under cross-examination, plaintiff stated that no one was standing at the window on the right. Hence, for purposes of our decision we will assume this was true. However, plaintiff's general description was that the place was crowded and she had to pass through these customers to reach this "ice cream window" on the side. She testified clearly that there were two men seated on the rail in front of the window on the right. These two men had their feet extended. There was a space of only 5.3 feet between the rail and the service counter which extended out from the building, which means that plaintiff had a space of about three feet through which to pass.
When asked why she did not see the door across her path, plaintiff stated: "I was just too busy looking at the window more than anything else." At other points she said: "I wasn't looking down"; and that she "wasn't expecting it"; and further that "there were too many people around to distract me"; and "I wanted to just go there and go home right away"; and "I had my mind on if I should get served at that window or the other window"; and "I wasn't watching to see a door and I wasn't expecting to see a door" and that she was "thinking about the crowd and many other things."
Now turning to the law, we have little difficulty in concluding that the defendant storekeeper was negligent. The storekeeper is not an insurer of the safety of his customers, his duty being to exercise reasonable care for their safety. However, the duty to use reasonable care is a full one, extending to every hazard which creates an unreasonable risk of foreseeable harm to his business invitees. This duty includes that of inspecting the premises for defects and warning of perils which the customers may not see through the exercise of ordinary care. Consideration must be given to the nature of the premises and the business purpose for which it is used. Peters v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, La.App., 72 So.2d 562; Pilie v. National Food Stores of Louisiana, Inc., 245 La. 276, 158 So.2d 162 (1963); Alexander v. General Accident Fire & Life Insurance Corp., La.App., 98 So.2d 730; Prosser, Law of Torts, 3d. Ed., 401-405.
In the present case there was a defective condition of the premises. The door had apparently been blown down by the wind before this accident occurred and was allowed to remain there as an obstruction to passage along the front of the building. The trial judge was no doubt impressed by the fact that on this issue defendant called only the owner of the business, and did not call any employees who were on duty that day, although it was made clear that at least one of them was readily available to testify. The owner testified that he inspected the premises while cleaning the lot about 10 a. m. and saw that the door was in place when he served a customer about 11 o'clock; that he did not know that the door had fallen until after the accident; that he was busy cooking and assembling sandwiches at the time and that everyone else was busy serving customers. Defendant explained that heavy winds probably blew the door down but was unable to give any time when this occurred. While he testified that this happened a few seconds before plaintiff fell, it was obvious that he knew nothing about the door from the time he last saw it about 11 o'clock until after the accident occurred. Considering the crowds which frequently used this passageway and the fact that the attention of customers would be distracted by the crowd, as well as by the advertising on the front of the building, (as shown by the pictures in evidence) such an obstruction across the passageway created an unreasonable risk of foreseeable harm to business invitees. We hold that defendant's insured or his employees were negligent in failing to hear the noise which must have occurred at the fall of this large heavy door and/or failing to see this door fall, and/or failing to observe that the door was no longer positioned between two of the three serving windows at this busy time of the day. Furthermore, they were negligent in failing to remove the hazard or warn patrons of this hazardous condition.
The more serious issue is whether plaintiff was contributorily negligent. This is a close question, but we have decided ultimately there is no manifest error by the jury in concluding that Mrs. Chauvin was free of negligence.
In the context of the present case, contributory negligence is conduct which, under the circumstances, falls below the standard of the duty required of everyone to protect his own safety. Levert v. Travelers Indemnity Company, La.App., 140 So. 2d 811, 813. It is an affirmative defense which the pleader must prove by a preponderance of the evidence. Daire v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company, La.App., 143 So.2d 389. In the Levert case, supra, we said "the invitee assumes all normally observable or ordinary risks attendant upon the use of the premises." (emphasis supplied)
Particularly applicable here are several cases in which invitees were found free of negligence in failing to see obstructions to their passage. In the recent case of Foggin v. General Guaranty Insurance Company, 250 La. 347, 195 So.2d 636, 641 (1967) a plank was nailed across the bottom of a gateway, extending 6 to 8 inches above the ground. The evidence showed that the host had opened the gate and waited for her guest to proceed through it. The court held:
"However, under the conditions herein, Mrs. Josephine Foggin reasonably assumed that she could walk through the gateway safely; she could not have been expected to assume that the board was at the bottom of the gateway. The instant danger — the board — was not such, under the facts found, as could and should have been discovered by Mrs. Foggin."
There are several cases which recognize that one of the factors to be considered is whether the customer's attention was distracted by inspecting such things as advertising or merchandise along the passageways. Provost v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, La.App., 154 So.2d 597; Guy v. Kroger Company, La. App., 204 So.2d 790. Another factor to be considered is whether the customer's attention was distracted by the crowded condition of the premises. Of course, the nature of the obstacle is always a factor in determining whether it should have been expected. For instance, a step is such a common thing in a building that a customer is required to see it, Magoni v. Wells, La.App., 154 So.2d 524, but there is a lesser duty by the invitee to observe unusual obstructions. As a general rule, a customer can rely on the passageway being reasonably safe and does not have to observe floor conditions before taking each step, Dever v. George Theriot's Inc., La.App., 159 So.2d 602; Murry v. Boston Insurance Company, La.App., 178 So.2d 452.
Applying these general principles to the facts of the present case, we find no manifest error in the jury's conclusion that plaintiff was free of contributory negligence. Her testimony shows that she had visited the premises many times in the past, when the obstructing door was not in the passageway. It was an unexpected and unusual obstruction. Her attention was distracted by the crowd. As she entered the rail and turned to her right, her view of the door was at least partially obstructed by the two men sitting on the rail. There was a narrow space, about three feet, between the extended feet; of the men sitting on the rail and the front of the building. After she turned to the right, she walked only about six feet through this narrow space and during this time she did not look down at the floor. She says the principal reason she did not look down was that she was looking toward the window where the waitress was waiting to serve her an ice cream cone. She wanted to get ahead of the crowd and get served and go home. Under all of the circumstances, we think it is not unreasonable that she did not observe the floor as she took each step and thus failed to see this unusual obstruction.
The final issue is quantum. The evidence shows that plaintiff, 59 years of age, suffered a lumbosacral sprain and a bruise of the left chest. There is a dispute as to whether she also suffered an aggravation of a preexisting prolapse of the colostomy, a condition in which, due to cancer or other disease, the anus has been surgically closed and the large intestine opened through another opening. The abnormal protrusion of the bowel through this new opening is a "prolapse."
Plaintiff was never hospitalized nor treated with traction nor braces. Treatment consisted of bed rest at home, and drugs. Eight months after the accident she was discharged as recovered from all symptoms of the lumbar sprain and the bruise to the chest.
There is a dispute as to whether the prolapse of the colostomy, which preexisted the accident, was aggravated by it. Without detailing this evidence, we think it is clear the jury could reasonably have concluded there was no such aggravation.
Under the circumstances, we find no abuse of discretion in the jury's award of $4,000. Gaspard v. LeMaire, 245 La. 239, 158 So.2d 149; Ballard v. National Indemnity Company of Omaha, Nebraska, 246 La. 963, 169 So.2d 64.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed is affirmed. All costs of this appeal are assessed against the defendant appellant.
Affirmed.