Opinion ID: 2080865
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: The defendant contends, in its first claim of error, that its motion for a directed verdict as to the plaintiff Doris Jackson should have been granted, because the evidence as a matter of law failed to establish negligence on the part of Frederick's. Specifically, it is argued, the evidence was contradictory and the plaintiff's testimony was essentially uncorroborated. We disagree. The defendant's argument, as articulated in its brief, focusing as it does on the weight of the evidence rather than on the absence thereof, is self-defeating. In Lyman v. Bourque, Me., 374 A.2d 588 (1977), a case where the comparative negligence statute was applicable, this Court held that the rule which prevailed prior to the enactment of the statute in determining whether to grant a defendant's motion for a directed verdict remained operative thereafter. The rule is that a directed verdict for a defendant should not be granted, if the evidence together with every reasonable inference arising therefrom, when viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, presents a proper issue for jury determination. Credibility of the evidence and resolution of inconsistencies or conflicts in the testimony of witnesses ordinarily point up jury questions. We quote again from Avery v. Brown, Me., 288 A.2d 713, 715 (1972), as we did in Binette v. Deane, Me., 391 A.2d 811, 814 (1978): Where the evidence . . . discloses that two arguable reasonable theories were presented to the jury for adoption, both being sustained by credible evidence, and one is reflected in the verdict, it would have been an abuse of discretion for the Justice below to override the jury decision and set aside the verdict. The degree of credibility to which witnesses are entitled is for the jury and not the court to decide. The jury on the evidence in this record was entitled to find the following facts. On the evening of March 22, 1976, Doris Jackson and her daughter attended a Sarah Coventry party at Frederick's, a motel-restaurant complex located in Caribou. At the conclusion of the party, Mrs. Jackson went to retrieve her coat from the cloakroom. While passing through the lobby of the inn, which was crowded with people leaving the party, she was shoved forward by an unidentified person causing her to stumble over a hardwood chair located there and to fall to the floor. Persons in charge at Frederick's, with the permission of Mrs. Jackson's daughter, moved her to a nearby booth from which she was transported shortly thereafter to Cary Memorial Hospital in Caribou. It was then determined that Mrs. Jackson had sustained an impacted fracture of the neck of the left femur. There was evidence before the jury which revealed that Mrs. Jackson was suffering from a severe diabetic condition, had hypertension, was prone to dizzy spells and had undergone eye surgery because of retinopathy, a disease of the retina of the eye. Mrs. Jackson in her complaint alleged that Frederick's was negligent in allowing its premises to be overcrowded, in permitting the chair against which she was caused to tumble to be there, and in the way its servants rendered aid to her after the fall. Our review of the evidence compels the conclusion that it was a proper question to be left for jury determination under 14 M.R.S.A. § 156: first, whether Frederick's, as operator of the inn, was guilty of causative fault in connection with the plaintiff's injury, i. e. guilty of negligence toward the plaintiff invitee in its failure to exercise reasonable care to ensure that its premises were reasonably safe for use by the plaintiff in the circumstance of the large group of exiting patrons and the obstructing chair, as well as in the furnishing of aid to the plaintiff following her accident; secondly, whether the plaintiff herself was guilty of causative fault contributing to her injury; and, thirdly, if the plaintiff's injury resulted partly from her own fault and partly from the fault of Frederick's, whether the plaintiff's causative fault was equal to or greater than the causative fault of the defendant Frederick's. Souza v. Bangor Hydro-Electric Company, Me., 391 A.2d 349 (1978); Libby v. Legrow, Me., 400 A.2d 381 (1979). The jury was warranted in finding that the plaintiff, notwithstanding her physical debilities, was making a legitimate use of Frederick's premises when she was proceeding on her way to the cloakroom and that any causative fault on her part in not anticipating the squeezing, jostling and pushing of the exiting crowd and in not observing the obstructing chair could rationally be considered lesser in its causational effect in bringing about her injury than Frederick's causative fault in not foreseeing the unruly departure of this large group of patrons anxious to leave the premises and in not removing a piece of furniture that impeded the movement of a great number of people.