Court Opinion

ID: 9585279
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:58:33.069554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:37:42.119078
License: Public Domain

Brailsford, Justice
(dissenting) :
The issue of willfulness having been eliminated from the case at the trial, I am convinced that defendant’s motion for a directed verdict on the ground of plaintiff’s contributory negligence should have been granted. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
I am mindful that the issue of contributory negligence is ordinarily for the jury and may not soundly be resolved against plaintiff on a motion for directed verdict unless, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff, only one reasonable inference may be drawn. This is such a case. The ramp was open and visible to plaintiff and she saw it. The absence of handrails was obvious to her. She knew that the ramp was constructed with a gradual slope to accommodate the difference in elevation between the sidewalk and the floor. She could see and knew that there was gradually decreasing step-down from the side of the ramp to the floor, and that there was a slight step-down, approximately one inch according to the pictures in evidence, at the end of the ramp. The hazard, if any, which the unguarded ramp presented to plaintiff was that she might step off without taking into account the difference in elevation and thus lose her balance. Plaintiff owed a duty, in the exercise of due care, to protect herself from this open and *373obvious hazard by being attentive during the brief interval required to clear the four foot ramp or to step off the side of it. Instead, she looked toward the grocery buggies, which were against the right wall of the store, and stepped in that direction, unmindful of the drop-off at the side of the ramp, which caused her to fall. There is no testimony that the entrance was crowded or that plaintiff was impeded or distracted in traversing the ramp. She undertakes to explain her inattention to the requirements of the situation by stating that she thought she was at floor level when she turned to the right. There is no evidence that the defendant in any way contributed to this miscalculation on her part. Plaintiff did not testify that she was deceived by any similarity between the surface of the ramp and that of the floor. The inference is clear that if she had looked, she could have seen the slight step-down at the point where she fell and proceeded with safety. The only reasonable inference is that due care under the circumstances required her to look and that she was guilty of contributory negligence in failing to do so.
Plaintiff argues that it was for the jury to say whether her failure to look was excusable under the principles announced in Conner v. Farmers and Merchants Bank, 243 S. C. 132, 132 S. E. (2d) 385. Conner applied the rule that forgetfulness or inattention to a known danger may be excused where sufficiently distracting influences are present. However, the following limitation of the doctrine, which we quote from the opinion, shows its inapplicability to the facts of this case.
“* * * jn order to keep forgetfulness of, or inattention to, a known danger from constituting contributory negligence as a matter of law, the evidence must be such as to give rise to a reasonable inference that the forgetfulness or inattention relied upon was induced by some immediate, substantial and adequate disturbing cause, to be determined in the light of the exigencies of the situation and the facts and *374circumstances of the particular occasion.” 243 S. C. 142, 143, 132 (2d) 385, 390.
For the reasons stated, I am of the opinion that the judgment should be reversed.