Court Opinion

ID: 9850200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:53:18.898915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:32.947259
License: Public Domain

HUNTER, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that the trial court did not err in admitting the employee handbook into evidence. I do not agree, however, that the trial court erred in granting plaintiff’s motion for a new trial.
“A store has a duty to exercise ordinary care to keep its premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn of any hidden dangers of which it knew [or] should have known.” Stallings v. Food Lion, Inc., 141 N.C. App. 135, 137, 539 S.E.2d 331, 333 (2000); Kremer v. Food Lion, Inc., 102 N.C. App. 291, 294, 401 S.E.2d 837, 838-39 (1991) (stating that “[t]he owner of a store is not an insurer of its customer’s safety but is under a duty to exercise ordinary care in keep*30ing the store’s aisles and passageways reasonably safe so as not to unnecessarily expose customers to danger”). Failure to do so constitutes negligence. Freeman v. Food Lion, LLC, 173 N.C. App. 207, 211, 617 S.E.2d 698, 701 (2005). Moreover, it is well established in North Carolina that the breach of a voluntarily-adopted safety rule may constitute evidence of a defendant’s negligence. Thompson v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 138 N.C. App. 651, 656, 547 S.E.2d 48, 51 (2000).
On a motion by a defendant for a directed verdict at the close of the plaintiff’s evidence in a jury case, the evidence must be taken as true and considered in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Stallings, 141 N.C. App. at 137-38, 539 S.E.2d at 333. The plaintiff must be given the benefit of every reasonable inference which may legitimately be drawn from the evidence, with conflicts, contradictions, and inconsistencies being resolved in the plaintiff’s favor. Hornby v. Penn. Nat’l Mut. Casualty Ins. Co., 62 N.C. App. 419, 422, 303 S.E.2d 332, 334 (1983). A directed verdict is not properly allowed unless it appears that a recovery cannot be had by the plaintiff upon any view of the facts which the evidence tends to establish. Willis v. Russell, 68 N.C. App. 424, 427, 315 S.E.2d 91, 94 (1984). “Directed verdict in a negligence case is rarely proper because it is the duty of the jury to apply the test of a person using ordinary care.” Stallings, 141 N.C. App. at 138, 539 S.E.2d at 333.
In the instant case, defendant, as owner and operator of the store in which plaintiff was injured, owed a duty to plaintiff to keep its premises safe and to warn him of any hidden dangers on the premises. Freeman, 173 N.C. App. at 211, 617 S.E.2d at 701. Further, defendant voluntarily adopted certain safety rules to ensure the safety of all lawful visitors. Most notably, defendant instructed its employees not to leave “stock carriers unattended in aisles.” In addition, Metz testified that defendant was responsible for the use and placement of all of the stock carts within defendant’s store. Plaintiff testified that the stock cart was unattended when he fell. Thus, notwithstanding the majority’s assertion to the contrary, there was evidence from which the jury could find that defendant violated its own safety rule by leaving the stock cart unattended, which in turn would constitute some evidence of defendant’s breach of the standard of care. Thompson, 138 N.C. App. at 656, 547 S.E.2d at 51. Even if a vendor or other third party placed the stock cart behind plaintiff, the jury could nevertheless find defendant negligent in leaving the stock cart unattended and in a position where anyone could push it behind plaintiff.
*31Plaintiff testified that, as he approached the soft drink display, the stock cart was not “anyplace around that [he] noticed.” The evidence showed that the stock cart was quite large, at least as long as the soft drink display at the end of the aisle, and with end posts four and a half feet high. When plaintiff turned away from the drink display, the low, unloaded stock cart was then directly behind him where he could not see it. This evidence contradicts the majority’s assertion that plaintiff presented “no evidence of how long the stock cart had been present in that position before he fell.” Plaintiff was only at the end aisle long enough to retrieve the soft drink bottle. It would be unreasonable to infer that the stock, cart was present in front of the end aisle the entire time and plaintiff simply failed to notice it, as plaintiff would have had to walk around the large stock cart to reach the soft drink display on the end aisle. In the light most favorable to plaintiff, which is the standard we must apply, the jury could reasonably conclude from the evidence that someone placed or pushed the stock cart to its position behind plaintiff while he stood at the display. As plaintiff turned, he immediately struck the stock cart and fell. Although the stock cart was unattended at the time, plaintiff observed one of defendant’s employees standing nearby, speaking with a customer, directly after his fall. The employee witnessed plaintiff’s injury, but he did not report the accident to management, in violation of store policy. No accident report was made of plaintiff’s accident until several months after the incident. Taken in the light most favorable to plaintiff, there was evidence from which the jury could find that defendant failed to adhere to its own safety policies by neglecting to properly supervise the stock cart that caused plaintiff’s injury.
As issues of fact existed requiring resolution by a jury, the trial court improperly granted a directed verdict in favor of defendant. A new trial may be granted for “[e]rror in law occurring at the trialf.]” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 59(a)(8) (2003). This Court reviews de novo the trial court’s granting of a motion for a new trial based upon error of law. Chiltoski v. Drum, 121 N.C. App. 161, 164, 464 S.E.2d 701, 703 (1995). The trial court’s error of law in granting a directed verdict for defendant supports the trial court’s subsequent decision to grant a new trial. I would hold the trial court did not err in granting plaintiffs motion for a new trial.