Court Opinion

ID: 9846211
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:36:58.148015+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:35.307531
License: Public Domain

Bussey, Justice
(dissenting) :
I most respectfully dissent. Assuming that the plaintiff was guilty of simple negligence, we are not warranted in *618holding, as a matter of law, that the conduct of the defendant amounted to nothing more than simple negligence and that the plaintiff is, accordingly barred. To the contrary, the record, in my opinion, contains abundant evidence from which willful conduct, the conscious failure to exercise ordinary care, on the part of the defendant may be reasonably inferred.
In connection with closing the particular doroway, where the injury occurred, the construction plans called for the defendant to cut in or construct a new doorway a few feet away, which would provide access to and from the same areas served by the old doorway. The new doorway had not yet been constructed when the defendant started to close the old doorway. Just why the new doorway had not yet been opened is not clearly reflected by the record, but the closing of the old doorway had to be halted so that the passageway could be maintained until the new doorway was constructed.
The defendant knew when the closing of the old doorway was halted that such would continue to be used by the employees of White’s as a passageway for quite some time and until the new doorway was constructed. During this interim, the 2x4 footing immediately in and across the passageway was unnecessary and served no useful purpose. It was, in fact, removed after plaintiff’s injury. Not only was an unusual hazard unnecessarily left in the passageway, but no steps were taken by the defendant to minimize the hazard by the use of small wooden ramps or any other device, to provide a gradual rise in elevation and reduce the likelihood of one being thrown as a result of catching a heel against the side of the footing.
Both the foreman and the superintendent of the defendant, in effect, admitted that they knew at the time of leaving such obstruction in the passageway that it constituted an unnecessary and dangerous hazard to the employees of White’s. Despite such, they failed to do anything whatever to remove or minimize the hazard. The foregoing facts and circum*619stances fully warrant a finding that there was a conscious failure on the part of the defendant to exercise ordinary care for the safety of those using the passageway.
Lewis, J., concurs.