Court Opinion

ID: 9592784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:16:57.326684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:24.918616
License: Public Domain

Colwell, D. J., Retired,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent on the issue of assumption of risk, particularly the conclusion of the majority that WOWT failed to produce evidence from which the jury could find that Mandery knew of the floor’s dangerous condition, that he understood or appreciated the dangerous floor condition, and that he voluntarily exposed himself to that dangerous condition as the proximate cause of his injuries.
It is the duty of the trial court to submit to the jury all material issues which are presented by the pleadings and supported by the evidence. Munson v. Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital, 186 Neb. 778, 186 N.W.2d 492 (1971). Assumption of risk is generally a question for the jury. Kaufman v. Tripple, 180 Neb. 593, 144 N.W.2d 201 (1966).
Before the defense of assumption of risk may be submitted to the jury, the evidence must show that the plaintiff (1) knew of the danger, (2) understood the danger, and (3) voluntarily exposed himself to the danger which proximately caused the plaintiff’s damage. Rahmig v. Mosley Machinery Co., 226 Neb. 423, 412 N.W.2d 56 (1987).
The standard to be applied is, in theory at least, a subjective one, geared to the particular plaintiff and his situation, rather than that of the reasonable person of ordinary prudence who appears in contributory negligence. If, because of age or lack of information or experience, he does not comprehend the risk involved in a known situation, he will not be taken to consent to assume it. His failure to exercise ordinary care to discover the danger is not properly a matter of assumption of risk, but of the defense of contributory negligence.
At the same time, it is evident that a purely subjective standard opens a very wide door for the plaintiff who is willing to testify that he did not know or understand the risk; and there have been a good many cases in which the courts have said in effect that he is not to be believed, so that in effect something of an objective element enters the *407case, and the standard applied in fact does not always differ greatly from that of the reasonable person. Thus, the plaintiff will not be heard to say that he did not comprehend a risk which must have been quite clear and obvious to him____
Since the notion of assumption of the risk rests more fundamentally upon the plaintiff’s consent than upon his knowledge, it is quite possible for the plaintiff to assume risks of whose specific existence he is not aware, provided that his intent to do so is made clear. He may, in other words, consent to take his chances as to unknown conditions. He may certainly do so expressly; and there are a few cases in which the assumption has been found by implication. Thus a guest who accepts a gratuitous ride in an automobile has been taken to assume the risk of defects in the car unknown to the driver, just as the same has been said of a licensee who enters another’s premises. Workmen used to be said to assume risks of employment of which they had at least equal means or opportunities of knowledge or discovery with the employer, even though they were unaware of what they were. But if the plaintiff has consented only to a vague and general hazard, and he is unaware of the presence or nature of the specific risk that injures him, his knowledge may be insufficient for the defense to be established.
(Emphasis supplied.) Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts, Negligence: Defenses § 68 at 487-90 (5th ed. 1984).
This is an unusual case in terms of causation. No one knows exactly how the accident happened. Mandery may have inadvertently stepped or fallen into the hole. Plaintiffs’ theory of recovery and their allegations of negligence and the dangers involved do not rely primarily on the presence of the hole in the floor but, rather, go to the lack of joists or support for the remaining living room flooring around the perimeter of the hole. From the record, there is a close question of plaintiffs’ proof of causation.
After admitting that it is impossible to factually reconstruct the accident, plaintiffs rest their proof on these circumstances *408and their inferences: there was a large hole in the living room floor; the floor joists had been cut and removed in the area of the hole; the remaining perimeter of flooring was unsupported and was claimed to be a hidden danger; plaintiff Richard Mandery gained entrance to the first floor of the house to perform his inspection job preliminary to razing the house; somehow plaintiff stepped on the unsupported perimeter flooring that gave way, throwing him into the basement, as evidenced by pieces of flooring found on the basement floor and underneath plaintiff’s body. These facts and circumstances were found sufficient by the trial court to submit plaintiffs’ negligence case to the jury, over the objections of the defendant.
The same circumstances that permit an inference that the floor collapsed under Mandery permit an inference that he knew the floor was unsupported because of the absence of joists but assumed the risk by walking into the room toward the hole.
The majority now decides as a matter of law that there was no evidence of assumption of risk to be submitted to the jury even though, in addition to the foregoing evidence, the record shows that Mandery had had 17 years of experience in the dangerous occupation of razing more than 1,000 houses and other buildings that were in all stages of repair and disrepair, with both known and unknown dangerous conditions; it was Mandery’s job and duty to inspect all parts of the house inside and outside before beginning his demolition procedures; Mandery voluntarily entered the house; there was adequate sunlight in the house for Mandery to observe and appreciate the hole in the floor, the absence of floor joists, and the perimeter flooring; the remaining perimeter of flooring was a danger but not a hidden danger; and if a person stepped on the perimeter of flooring, it might give way.
After taking into account Mandery’s long years of experience and his consent to voluntarily enter the house for inspection purposes, I conclude that defendant WOWT did meet its burden of proof for submitting the issue of assumption of risk to the jury. From the evidence and its inferences the jury could find that Mandery must have had knowledge of the hole in the floor and the dangerous condition of the remaining perimeter *409of flooring around the hole, that Mandery understood and appreciated that dangerous condition, and that he voluntarily exposed himself to that danger, which proximately caused plaintiff’s injuries. The judgment should be affirmed.
Boslaugh, J., joins in this dissent.