Court Opinion

ID: 9751445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:27:45.681664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:15.826086
License: Public Domain

Henderson, J.,
delivered the following dissenting opinion.
There are few buildings anywhere that do not contain stairways, and it is not suggested that the existence of a stairway is negligence per se. But it is now held that the mere location of a stairway adjacent to a door is sufficient to charge a landlord with negligence. There must be thousands of buildings, erected in full complicance with the building codes, where such a condition exists. Apartments with doors opening on stair landings are a familiar example. There is no evidence that the stairway in question was improperly constructed, defective or badly lighted. To correct the defect found *462it will apparently be necessary to remodel the whole structure and move the staircase to an undetermined distance from any door.
When we consider the question of contributory negligence the case seems even clearer. The plaintiff could hardly have failed to see the stairway when she opened the door. Certainly she could have seen it if she had looked, and it was her duty to look. Nevertheless, she chose to take up a position immediately in front of the door, where she blocked the entrance, and at the very top of the stairway, to which she turned her back. After she had stood there for three or four minutes and someone was about to enter, she stepped backwards without looking and fell. To step back without looking is seldom a prudent act; to do so when she had voluntarily assumed a position blocking the entrance, at the head of a plainly visible stairway, is so manifestly imprudent in my mind as to leave no room for doubt.
There seems to be no Maryland case directly in point. But in Yaniger v. Calvert Bldg. & Con. Co., 183 Md. 285, 37 A. 2d 263, an action for injuries sustained in falling through a tall open window immediately adjacent to an elevator was held bad on demurrer. The Court took pains to distinguish Recreation Centre Corp. v. Zimmerman, 172 Md. 309, 191 A. 233, on the ground that in that case there was a defect in the stairs, or missing step, by which the plaintiff was “caught unawares". The cases of Elzey v. Boston Metals Co., 189 Md. 566, 56 A. 2d 692, Long v. Joestlein, 193 Md. 211, 66 A. 2d 407, and Neely v. Brewer, 194 Md. 691, 71 A. 2d 872, illustrate the lengths to which this court has gone in denying recovery as a matter of law where there was no defect except the mere existence of an opening, stairwell or obstruction that was easily apprehendable.
While there are instances in other states where cases have been allowed to go to a jury on somewhat similar facts, a careful analysis will disclose that they almost always are based not on the mere existence or location of a stairway, but on active conduct by. the proprietor or *463lessee, calculated to trap a customer, as, for example, the display of goods in such a manner as to hide the steps or divert the customer’s attention, or the gathering of an unmanageable crowd in response to advertisements of sales. In the absence of such factors, the soundest rule is that stated in F. W. Woolworth & Co. v. Conboy, 8 Cir., 170 F. 934, 936, 23 L. R. A., N. S., 743, cited with approval by this court in Long v. Joestlein, supra: “Open stairways leading from one story to another are a part of the ordinary equipment of such [store] premises. Even when elevators are provided, there is usually a stairway adjacent to the shaft, and there are frequently other stairways in such rooms. Such stairways are closed on three sides, as was the one in this case; but the entrance is left open. Any other arrangement would be manifestly impracticable, and defeat the very object which the stairways are designed to accomplish. Such open stairways being an ordinary feature of store premises, the public, when resorting there, assume the risk arising therefrom, and are bound to protect themselves by the use of their eyes against such dangers. Mr. Justice Holmes, then speaking as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, states the rule applicable to such a situation as follows, in Hunnewell v. Haskell, 174 Mass. 557, 55 N. E. 320:
‘There is no duty on the part of a shopkeeper to give warning of the presence of an ordinary flight of stairs in broad daylight, or to guard the necessary access to it, even if there is a crowd in his shop. The sides of the opening were guarded. Every one who is on an upper story knows that there probably are stairs from it somewhere, and must look out for them. The case is different from that of a hole in the floor which commonly is covered, and which is of a kind not to be expected.’ ”
See also Bauhof v. Adair, 162 Pa. Super. 92, 56 A. 2d 370; Evans v. Orttenburger, 242 Mich. 57, 217 N. W. *464753; Myers v. Ben Snyder, Inc., 313 Ky. 832, 233 S. W. 2d 1016; Ball v. Atlantic City Ambassador Hotel Corp., 137 N. J. L. 744, 57 A. 2d 362. I think the case was properly withdrawn from the jury and the judgment should be affirmed.