Court Opinion

ID: 9846329
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:39:21.481876+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:27.337194
License: Public Domain

Pannell, Judge,
dissenting. As appellee says in his brief "this is another fall down case.” Claimant appellant brought an action against the defendant appellee alleging that she slipped and fell on a greasy or slippery substance on the escalator steps in the defendant’s store, the complaint alleging that the defendant was negligent in allowing the slippery substance to remain on the es*237calator steps and in failing to inform the plaintiff of the presence of the slippery substance and the danger thereof. The defendant made a motion for summary judgment depending upon plaintiff’s answer to the defendant’s interrogatories, the depositions taken by the defendant and an affidavit of an employee of the defendant. The plaintiff’s answers to interrogatories showed that she was on the premises as an invitee, that she started down the escalator and “as I stepped on the first step I slipped on something slippery on the top steps and lost my balance and fell against the steps.” She testified further that she sustained certain injuries, etc. In the deposition taken by the defendant the plaintiff testified that as she stepped on the first step of the escalator her foot slipped, that "the step was slippery, I don’t know what caused it to be slippery, but it was slippery and my foot just slipped out and I fell.” She stated that she did not see anything slippery on the steps as she did not look after she fell and that she did not see anything slippery on the steps before she fell, but that she felt something slippery on the steps and that “it must have been something on there because it was really slippery.” She further testified that she did not examine her shoes after she fell. The escalator was stopped after she fell. In the affidavit of the employee of the defendant, he testified that after the complainant fell “I carefully examined all of the steps including the top and the bottom. I found no evidence of any grease, oil or any other foreign substance which would have caused her to fall. I cut the escalator back on and again checked it and found nothing wrong. There was no mechanical defects and there were no worn or defective steps. I asked Mrs. Brown if she wanted to go to a doctor and she replied, 'No, I lost my balance and my foot slipped — I don’t know why.’ ”
The testimony of the plaintiff and that of the employee of the defendant is sufficient to make a jury question as to whether, at the time plaintiff slipped and fell, there was a foreign slick substance on the escalator steps. The defendant contends however that the plaintiff failed to prove that the foreign substance had been on the steps a sufficient length of time to have constituted notice of such condition to the defendant. Plaintiff had no such burden. "The defendant, having made the motion for summary judgment, must produce evidence which conclusively negates at *238least one essential element entitling plaintiff to a recovery under every theory fairly drawn from the pleadings and the evidence. Saunders v. Vikers, 116 Ga. App. 733 (2) (158 SE2d 324); Calhoun v. Eaves, 114 Ga. App. 756, 759 (152 SE2d 805). 'This is true because the burden to show that there is no genuine issue of material fact rests on the party moving for summary judgment, whether he or his opponent would at trial have the burden of proof on the issue concerned; and rests on him whether he is by it required to show the existence or non-existence of facts.’ Moore’s Federal Practice, Vol. 6 (2d Ed.), par. 56.15 [3], p. 2342. See also Colonial Stores v. Turner, 117 Ga. App. 331, 333 (160 SE2d 672); Sanfrantello v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 118 Ga. App. 205, 206 (163 SE2d 256); International Brotherhood v. Newman, 116 Ga. App. 590, 592 (158 SE2d 298).” Werbin & Tenenbaum, Inc. v. Heard, 121 Ga. App. 147 (2) (173 SE2d 114), followed in Central of Ga. R. Co. v. Woolfolk Chemical Works, 122 Ga. App. 789 (1c) (178 SE2d 710). The burden was on the defendant to prove that no foreign or slippery substance had been on the step of the escalator for a sufficient length of time to have constituted notice to the defendant of such condition. While the evidence of its employee might have authorized such a finding, it did not demand such a finding in view of the complainant’s testimony that a slippery substance was on the step at the time she fell and that it caused her fall. The burden being upon the defendant to prove the non-existence of this essential fact necessary to complainant’s recovery and to prove it with evidence which demands a finding in its favor, and it having failed to carry this burden, the trial court erred in granting its motion for summary judgment. Neither Martin v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 120 Ga. App. 66 (169 SE2d 718) nor W. T. Grant Co. v. Phillips, 116 Ga. App. 650 (158 SE2d 312), nor Collins v. S. H. Kress & Co., 114 Ga. App. 159 (150 SE2d 373) nor Scott v. Gulf Oil Corp., 116 Ga. App. 391 (157 SE2d 526) require a different ruling here, in which latter case there was no evidence there was anything slippery on the steps and no evidence that the plaintiff fell because a foot slipped on something slippery on the steps.
The majority give lip service to the rule that where the defendant, on whom the burden of proof, upon the trial of the case, *239does not lie, makes a motion for summary judgment, the burden is upon the defendant to affirmatively disprove some essential element of the plaintiff’s case by evidence which demands such finding; and that the mere absence of evidence proving the plaintiff’s case is not sufficient to authorize a summary judgment for the defendant, although upon the trial a verdict for the defendant would be demanded because of the failure of the plaintiff to prove its case as alleged, this court has consistently stated the rule and on numerous occasions has as consistently ignored it. That they have done so in the present case and have placed the burden upon the plaintiff in a defendant’s motion for summary judgment is shown by the following excerpts from the majority opinion. "Here it does not appear that either the defendant or some other person had put anything on the escalator step, nor does it appear that the defendant had any knowledge of any unsafe condition relative to the step actually or constructively.” Under the very rule which the majority acknowledge exists and which they acknowledge applies to the present case, the burden would be on the defendant to affirmatively prove by evidence demanding a finding that there was nothing on the step and affirmatively prove (there being an issue as to whether something was on the step) that the defendant had no knowledge of such condition either actually or constuctively. The majority, in their argument in support of their conclusion, ignore the very rule which they acknowledge exists and is the true rule to be applied to such a case as the present one. We are not here concerned with whether the plaintiff, under all of the evidence adduced could recover upon the trial of the case. We are concerned here only with whether the defendant has proven by uncontradicted evidence (1) that there was nothing slippery on the steps; and that if there was an issue as to this that (2) the defendant did not have actual notice or implied notice of it. This the defendant did not do. It was therefore not entitled to summary judgment. I would reverse the trial judge.