Court Opinion

ID: 9634414
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:10:56.086378+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:28.025284
License: Public Domain

Henderson, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion, in which Bruns, C. J., and Sybert, J., concurred.
I agree with the holding of a majority of the Court that the facts in this case bring it within the scope of the so-called doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. The factual situation, involving a falling stack of goods on or about store premises, is one in *107which the doctrine has been frequently applied. See the cases collected in Note 20 A.L.R. 2d 95. I also agree that, although the defendant’s employee testified that the boxes were properly stacked, the jury was not compelled to believe him, and could properly have found that the fall was due to improper stacking. On the question of “exclusive control,” I should also agree that the short interval of time, less than 5 minutes, during which the boxes were unattended and unobserved, after the employee entered the store and while the plaintiff was walking to her car and entering, starting and driving it past the boxes, meets the test, and effectively rules out any inference that the fall was caused by the interference of a third person. Cf. Joffre v. Canada Dry, Inc., 222 Md. 1, 8 and Nalee, Inc. v. Jacobs, 228 Md. 525, 531. See also Dee v. Housing Auth. of Baltimore, 203 Md. 453 and Walker v. Vail, 203 Md. 321. There was no testimony that any third person was in the vicinity, or that any high wind was blowing.
I think, however, that just as the jury could properly have found that the fall was caused by negligent stacking, so it could properly find, as it apparently did, that the fall was caused by the interference of the plaintiff herself, despite her testimony that she did not touch the stack. Ruling out the remote possibility of interference by a third person or an act of God, we have the undisputed fact that the boxes were well enough stacked to permit the dolly to be wheeled from the store and securely lodged against a metal upright, or lolly-pole, supporting the sidewalk awnings, where it was found undisturbed after the alleged accident, when one of the three stacks was found on the sidewalk. The plaintiff’s testimony is that she had pushed her loaded grocery cart alongside her automobile, after she parked the automobile at the curb, and had her left hand on the cart handle and her right hand on the door handle when she was struck in the head and shoulder by a falling box or boxes. She testified that the cart was between her and the dolly, and that the dolly was “roughly” 5 feet behind the rear end of her automobile, or a distance of about 14 feet from the door handle. Since the evidence was that the top of the boxes on the dolly was 5 feet 6 inches from the ground (Mrs. Munzert testified that it was about a foot higher) *108and she was admittedly 5 feet 4 inches tall, it is almost inconceivable that a box falling off the top of the stack could strike her in the head. It would seem that it would necessarily land 6 or 7 feet from where she was standing, and not even strike the cart.
The testimony of the employee was, however, that when he came out of the store the rear end of the automobile was alongside the dolly. This would doubtless bring the plaintiff within range of the falling boxes. It would also bring the cart within range of the dolly. Since the boxes obviously had enough initial stability to remain in position while pushed on the dolly, by far the most probable explanation is that the plaintiff, carelessly and perhaps unknowingly, pushed her cart with her left hand as she reached for the car door with her right, and struck the dolly or lower tier of boxes with sufficient force to dislodge the top ones in the only stack that fell. At least it is perfectly clear to me that the jury was entitled to consider that as a hypothesis of what happened equally as probable as the hypothesis that the fall was due solely to the improper stacking of the boxes and the force of gravity.
The fact that the plaintiff testified that she did not touch the boxes is not controlling. Of course, if she had admitted striking them, or had otherwise explained the cause of the fall, she would have put herself outside the scope of the doctrine. Nalee v. Jacobs, supra (p. 532), and cases cited. Under the third test laid down in Williams v. McCrory Stores Corp., 203 Md. 598, 601 (adopted from Wigmore), the injurious occurrence must have happened irrespective of any voluntary action at the time by the party injured. Prosser, Torts (2d ed.), p. 201, states the third test in somewhat different terms: “[I]t must not have been due to any voluntary action or contribution on the part of the plaintiff.” At p. 208 he states: “Allied to the condition of exclusive control in the defendant is that of absence of any action on the part of the plaintiff contributing to the accident. Its purpose, of course, is to eliminate the possibility that it was the plaintiff who was responsible.” As stated in 2 Harper & James, The Law of Torts, § 19.8: “What is needed here is that the plaintiff’s own negligence, along with that of anyone else for whom defendant is not responsible, be *109eliminated so as to complete the basis for an inference that the negligence of which the thing speaks is probably that of defendant.” But the jury is no more compelled to draw the one inference than the other.
It is well settled that “res ipsa loquitur means that the facts of the occurrence warrant the inference of negligence, not that they compel such an inference.” Potts v. Armour & Co., 183 Md. 483, 487. In the same case it was said (p. 488): “The accident must have happened irrespective of any voluntary action at the time by the party injured, (citing cases) Otherwise, a person claiming to have been injured as the result of negligence could invoke the rule and use the fact of the happening of the accident as evidence of negligence, even though the jury considers his story incredible.” The accepted rule that the inference is permissible but not mandatory in this type of case would be distorted or destroyed if the jury were instructed that they could not find that the plaintiff’s action was a contributing cause under circumstances like those in the case at bar.
Even in a case where the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is not applied eo nomine, but recovery rests largely on inference, the fact that the jury may properly disbelieve a plaintiff’s testimony may, in some circumstances, prevent a directed verdict for the plaintiff, particularly where such testimony is controverted or impeached. See Antonelli v. Pugh, 231 Md. 194, 198 and cases cited. See also Dunstan v. Bethlehem Steel Co., 187 Md. 571 and Proctor Electric Co. v. Zink, 217 Md. 22, 33. It may be noted that in the instant case there was a sharp conflict in the medical testimony as to whether the plaintiff sustained any injury at all in the accident sued on, there was evidence of injury in a prior accident, and a history of neurotic behavior.
The opinion of a majority of the Court seems to concede that it was not reversible error for the trial court to omit the stock instruction as to the duty owed to a business invitee. The only other question preserved below or presented in the briefs is the failure of the trial court to instruct as to the burden of proof of contributory negligence. Under Rule 554 e there is nothing else before us. It may be true that there is a valid distinction between the normal situation in which the *110burden of proving contributory negligence rests upon the defendant, and the third test of res ipsa loquitur, already discussed, which requires a plaintiff to negative his own participation, where he is in a position of possible control over the occurrence. For a discussion of the distinction see Rollins v. Los Angeles, 26 Cal. Rptr. 162, 166, a very recent decision of an intermediate appellate court in California, closely analogous on the facts. Res ipsa loquitur, whether regarded as a presumption or inference (the later cases and writers favor the inference theory), is an exception to the general rule that the mere happening of an accident raises no presumption of negligence. Cf. Wasserman v. Hutzler Co., 219 Md. 310. To obtain the benefit of the doctrine the plaintiff must assume the burden of negativing the inference of any intervening cause, including his own participation, whether negligent or not. Under the circumstances of the instant case I think it would have been misleading and confusing to the jury to give the stock instruction as to the burden of proof of contributory negligence, in a charge that was obviously based on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, since the true cause of the accident was never explained.
The trial court was clearly authorized by Rule 554 to refuse all prayers and charge the jury in non-technical language. Cf. Ager v. Balto. Transit Co., 213 Md. 414, 425, Arundel Corp. v. Jasper, 219 Md. 519, 529, and Nance v. Kalkman, 223 Md. 564, 569. In summing up, the trial court put the question in a nutshell: “In this case there are two basic problems, one, was the store liable for the boxes falling, was it negligent in piling the boxes the way it did and did that cause the accident or something else cause it * * (The second problem as to damages is not here relevant.) At an earlier point in the charge the court had explained that the jury might infer, but were not required to do so, that the boxes fell because they were negligently piled, but that if Mrs. Munzert caused the stack to fall by striking it with her car, cart or person, she would be guilty of contributory negligence, although there was no testimony that she struck the stack. In substance, I think this was no more than stating, in simple terms understandable to laymen, the essence of the third test of res ipsa loquitur. If any act of the plaintiff caused her injury in the instant case, *111it would be precisely the same kind of act that would constitute contributory negligence in the ordinary case. To call such an act contributory negligence does not change its nature, nor does the use of the term add to the burden which the plaintiff has to meet in a res ipsa case of excluding his or her conduct as a contributing cause of the accident. If the trial court’s use of the words “contributory negligence” may fairly be said to be an oversimplification, I find no reversible error.
I am authorized to say that Chief Judge Bruñe and Judge Sybert agree with the views here expressed.