Court Opinion

ID: 9692664
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 15:59:48.015451+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:58.976876
License: Public Domain

LIVINGSTON, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
It is also undisputed that Mr. Robinson was an employee of Shook & Fletcher Supply Company. This company had a subcontract with the Foster & Creighton Company to supply and install • air conditioning and heating systems in the new building, for which purpose the contractor poured concrete floors into the addition, and in the process formed four holes in the northwest corners of the second, third and fourth floors. All of these floors were identical. Three of these holes on each floor were about 18 by 30 inches each, and the fourth, which was 5 or 6 feet away from these, had dimensions which were variously estimated at 4 by 6 feet, 7 by 8 feet, and 6 by 10 feet. The holes on all the floors were aligned in such a manner that a straight line could be dropped from the top floor to the first floor through each of the holes. The three smaller holes on each floor were to carry air conditioning ducts, and the larger hole was to carry both air conditioning and heating ducts. Windows in the north wall afforded ample light to see the holes easily.
Mr. Robinson fell from the third floor through the large hole to the first floor. He died as a result of injuries received in this fall. It is also undisputed that shortly before Robinson fell he warned Coggins not to step or fall in opening No. 4.
Appellant concedes that at the time of the accident Robinson was an invitee on the premises and as such was owed a duty consonant with that status.
The controlling law on the question in this jurisdiction is stated in Lamson & Sessions Bolt Co. v. McCarty, 234 Ala. 60, 173 So. 388, 391, in which Mr. Justice Knight, speaking for the court said:
“This court is firmly committed to the proposition that the occupant of premises is bound to use reasonable care and diligence to keep the premises in a safe condition for the access of persons who come thereon by his invitation, expressed or implied, for the transaction of business, or for any other purpose beneficial to him; or, if his premises are in any respect dangerous, he must give such visitors sufficient warning of the danger to enable them, by the use of ordinary care, to avoid it. Geis v. Tennessee Coal, Iron & R. R. Co., 143 Ala. 299, ,39 So. 301.
‘.‘This rule, as was held in the case of Farmers’. & Merchants’ Warehouse Co. *594v. Perry, supra [218 Ala. 223, 118 So. 406], also includes (a) the duty to warn an invitee of danger, of which he knows, or ought to know, and of which the invitee is ignorant; and (b) the duty to use reasonable care to have the premises to which he is invited in a reasonably safe condition for such contemplated uses, and within the contemplated invitation.
“In determining whether such care has been exercised, it is proper to consider the uses and purposes for which the property in question is primarily intended. 45 C.J. p. 829.
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“In 45 C.J. § 244, p. 837, the rule is thus stated: ‘The duty to keep premises safe for invitees applies only to defects or conditions which are in the nature of hidden dangers, traps, snares, pitfalls, and the like, in that they are not known to the invitee, and would not be observed by him in the exercise of ordinary care. The invitee assumes all normal or ordinary risks attendant upon the use of the premises, and the owner or occupant is under no duty to reconstruct or alter the premises so as to obviate known and obvious dangers, nor is he liable for injury to an invitee resulting from a danger which was obvious or should have been observed in the exercise of reasonable care.’ ”
The requirements for a case of contributory negligence are well set out in Mackintosh Co. v. Wells, 218 Ala. 260, 118 So. 276, 279, as follows:
“ * * * In contributory negligence, the essentials are that the party, against whom the plea is interposed, not only (1) had knowledge of the condition or failure, yet (2) appreciated the danger under the surrounding conditions and circumstances and did not (3) exercise reasonable care in the premises, but with such knowledge and appreciation put himself into the way of danger. Morgan v. Mobile & O. R. Co., 202 Ala. 461, 80 So. 845; Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Naugher, 203 Ala. 557, 560, 84 So. 262; Jones v. Ripley Stave Co., 203 Ala. 60, 82 So. 20; Labatt’s Master and Servant, § 332. * * *
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“The instant plea was that of contributory negligence, and the mere knowledge of the offending instrumentality or condition does not constitute contributory negligence; there must have been an appreciation or consciousness of the danger that may result from the act or the failure thereof causing and resulting in the injury. Dobbins v. Western Union Tel. Co., 163 Ala. 222, 50 So. 919, 136 Am.St.Rep. 69; Elyton Land Co. v. Mingea, 89 Ala. 521, 7 So. 666; City Council of Montgomery v. Wright, 72 Ala. 411, 47 Am.Rep. 422; Osborne v. Alabama Steel & Wire Co., 135 Ala. 571, 33 So. 687.”
These requirements are further explained in Dwight Mfg. Co. v. Word, 200 Ala. 221, 75 So. 979, 983, in which the court said:
“ * * * Contributory negligence is not predicated solely on knowledge of the danger, and the certainty of injury to follow. If such were the rule, contributory negligence would be but a synonym for willful suicide or self-injury. If plaintiff had knowledge of facts sufficient to warn a man of ordinary sense and prudence of the danger to be encountered, and of the natural and probable consequences of his own conduct in the premises, then he was guilty of negligence if he failed to exercise ordinary care to discover and avoid the danger and the injury. 29 Cyc. 513, c; Id. 515, d; Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. v. Reid, 191 Ala. 628, 68 So. 136.”
The instant case is analogous to Long Construction Co. v. Fournier, 190 Old. 361, 123 P.2d 689, 690. In that case, plaintiff was injured when he fell while inspecting plastering work being done by him as an independent contractor. Defendant was the *595general contractor in charge of remodeling the building in which plaintiff was injured. The evidence showed that during the remodeling a celotex covering had been placed over a marble floor as protection. The celotex covering consisted of two pieces placed end to end over which wheelbarrows had moved, so as to cause the pieces to warp and overlap. In reversing a judgment for plaintiff, the court said:
“ * * * There is no evidence that defendant knew the condition of the covering, but by the exercise of reasonable care it could have discovered the condition, but the defendant, while chargeable with knowledge of a condition involving the risk, should be credited with every reason to believe that plaintiff would discover the same condition and realize the risk involved.
“The plaintiff made frequent inspection trips to the premises; he knew or should have known of the floor covering and of the condition of it resulting from the moving over it of plastering material by men under his supervision. The plaintiff had like knowledge of the lighting equipment. He had been there two or three times a day. City of Edmond v. Washam, Adm’x, 1940 [190 Okl. 140] 121 P.2d 300; St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Gilbert, 185 Okl. 591, 95 P.2d 123, 126, held: ‘The true ground of liability is the proprietor’s superior knowledge of the perilous instrumentality and the danger therefrom to persons going upon the property. It is when the perilous instrumentality is known to the owner or occupant and not to the person injured that a recovery is permitted.’
“The general contractor is not an insurer of the safety of invitees; he is not required, at his peril, to keep the premises absolutely safe, but the measure of his duty in this respect is reasonable or ordinary care, and in determining whether such care has been exercised, it is proper to consider the uses and purposes for which the property in question is primarily intended. 45 C.J. 826.”
In Neal v. Cities Service Oil Co., 306 Mich. 605, 11 N.W.2d 259, plaintiff was an invitee in a filling station operated by defendant. Plaintiff walked into a well-lighted restroom, in the floor of which was an open trap door. Plaintiff stopped and stood in one door of the restroom and did not see the open trap door as he walked past it. As plaintiff stepped back to let someone pass, he fell into the unprotected trap door opening. In reversing a judgment for plaintiff, the court said that ordinary prudence requires that a view be taken of the place where one is about to step, and held that where an adult possessed of all normal faculties walks into a small well-lighted room, past such a floor opening as this trap door, stands for five minutes near the edge of the opening, and then in a moment of carelessness steps backward into the opening, such person is not using the care that an ordinarily careful person would use under like circumstances, and is guilty of negligence as a matter of law.
In Connors-Weyman Steel Co. v. Kilgore, 189 Ala. 643, 66 So. 609, the court decided the case on other grounds, but stated that the inherently dangerous defect in the premises was as well known to the invitee as to the owner, and could furnish no basis for liability of the owner merely as an invitor.
In the recent case of Claybrooke v. Bently, 260 Ala. 678, 72 So.2d 412, the deceased, Jesse, was crushed while holding a ramp leading into a warehouse when a trailer-truck which he was directing in its movements hooked the ramp and pulled it against the building. Jesse was an employee of an independent contractor who had a contract to haul cotton seed from a cotton gin to the warehouse. He had been working at the warehouse for about six months. In an action by his administratrix against the warehouse owner in which the defendant was charged with negligence in failing to provide a safe place to work, this court *596held that the affirmative charge should have been given at the request of the defendant. The court held that the danger being a known and obvious one, of which Jesse knew or should have known, defendant could assume that he would observe it and guard against it. The court reaffirmed the law as stated in Lamson & Sessions Bolt Co., supra, and that under the factual situation in the case, it was reversible error to refuse to give the affirmative charge for the defendant.
The appellee relies strongly on Day & Sachs v. Travelers’ Ins. Co., 223 Ala. 558, 137 So. 409, to support his contention that the case was properly submitted to the jury. That case can be distinguished from the case at bar by the fact that the question of plaintiff’s being injured as the result of an open and obvious danger was noC raised in that case.
As I understand the majority opinion, it is rested on the theory that the Foster and Creighton Company, while perhaps not obligated in the first instance to cover or guard the opening through which Robinson fell, it undertook to do so, and because of its negligent failure in that regard Robinson fell to his death. But assuming that the Foster and Creighton Company did assume the duty and did negligently fail to perform it, does it necessarily follow that a jury case was made against Foster and Creighton? Is it not necessary to show that said negligence was the proximate cause of the injury? To make the Foster and Creighton Company liable, its undertaking to cover or guard the opening through which Robinson fell and its negligent failure to do so, must have cloaked the defect, dulled Robinson’s call to vigilance, given him a false assurance, and aggravated the danger to him. This, we cannot visualize for the simple reason that the opening was still obviously open and unguarded, and Robinson, of all people, whose sole duty it was to work in and around the series of openings in the third floor, including the opening through which he fell, by the exercise of ordinary care could and should have observed the opening through which he fell, and his failure to do so was, in my opinion, the sole proximate cause of his death. There is nothing in this record to indicate in the slightest degree that Robinson was not aware at all times of the unguarded condition of the opening through which he fell. He cannot be heard to say that he did not know that it was there; nor can he be heard to say that he did not know that it was unguarded. What then, other than his own lack of due care, could have caused his fall ? Whose fault, but his own, can it be said caused his injury and death? If that be so, his own negligence was the sole proximate cause of his fall.
For the above reasons, I am of the opinion that the defendant was entitled to the general charge, and I therefore respectfully dissent.