Court Opinion

ID: 9572878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:45:18.979817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:34:33.148084
License: Public Domain

*490BARNES, Vice Chief Justice.
I respectfully dissent. I agree with the majority opinion that notice is not required to be shown in a “slip-and-fall” cause of action when the store “created the condition.” Rogers v. Hennessee, 602 P.2d 1033 (Okl.1979). Generally, under Oklahoma law the plaintiff has available two viable theories to prove that the defendant breached his duty of care. First, the plaintiff may prove that a dangerous condition resulted from a negligent act of the store owner or his employees. See Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Feeback, 390 P.2d 519 (Okl.1964); Fuller v. Rahill, 496 P.2d 785 (Okl.1972). Second, where the dangerous condition is not attributable to the negligence of the store owner or its employees the plaintiff may show either that the store owner had actual knowledge of the condition or such condition existed for such a period of time that in the exercise of due care he should have discovered the dangerous condition. Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Keef, 416 P.2d 892 (Okl. 1966). However, under both theories the plaintiff must not only prove that the defendant breached his duty of care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition and was therefore negligent, but he must also prove that the defendant’s negligence was the proximate cause of the injury.
In the present case, therefore, Lingerfelt was not required to prove notice under her theory that Winn-Dixie breached its duty of care and was negligent in its method of displaying the strawberries. In order to recover she was, however, required to prove that Winn-Dixie breached its duty of care and was negligent in displaying the strawberries and that this negligence was the proximate cause of her injuries.
I dissent to the majority’s conclusion that Lingerfelt proved under the evidence that Winn-Dixie breached its duty of care and was therefore negligent in displaying strawberries in unwrapped containers, and I also dissent to the majority’s conclusion that Lingerfelt proved under the evidence that such method of display and packaging was the proximate cause of her injuries.
Lingerfelt in this case was required to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Winn-Dixie failed to exercise due care in its method of packaging and displaying strawberries. I think she failed to do so. The store owner is not an insurer of the safety of his customers, but owes them a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn of any hidden dangers. Rogers v. Hennessee, supra; Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Criner, 380 P.2d 712 (Okl.1963). An invitee assumes all normal, ordinary or obvious risks attendant upon the use of the premises, and the owner or occupant is not liable for injury to an invitee resulting from a danger which was obvious or should have been observed in the exercise of ordinary care. DeBaca v. Kahn, 49 N.M. 225, 161 P.2d 630 (1945). Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Sanders, 372 P.2d 1021 (1962). What constitutes due care of a store owner must be determined by the circumstances and conditions surrounding the transaction under consideration. DeBaca v. Kahn, supra; Mahoney v. J. C. Penney Company, 71 N.M. 244, 377 P.2d 663 (1963). The court in the DeBaca case stated:
“... 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 known to the person injured that a recovery is permitted ...”
I can see nothing inherently or obviously dangerous in a display of strawberries in unwrapped containers which were in plain sight and similar to all other displays of fruits and vegetables in the area. Fruits and vegetables such as oranges, bananas, apples, potatoes, etc. are normally displayed in an unwrapped condition. We cited with approval in Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Sanders, supra, the Massachusetts case of Adriance v. Henry Duncan Corporation, 291 Mass. 202, 196 N.E. 906 where that court stated:
“Some latitude must be allowed proprietor of store to display goods in manner consistent with nature of goods in a business, where negligence is claimed in action for customers’ injuries.”
*491There is no reason that Winn-Dixie should have anticipated that such a display of strawberries in an unwrapped condition would be a source of danger to invited persons who would expect to find in the store conditions which would naturally attend the manner in which the business was openly and visibly carried on. There was no hidden danger here. There was nothing inherently or obviously dangerous in the strawberries display. Displays of fruits and vegetables including the strawberry display was entirely visible and obvious to an invitee. Therefore, it is my opinion that under the facts and circumstances in this ease, Lingerfelt failed to prove that Winn-Dixie breached its duty of care in displaying the strawberries, and therefore she failed to prove negligence on the part of Winn-Dixie. Absent such evidentiary proof the case should not have gone to the jury. See Rogers v. Hennessee, supra; Safeway Stores, Inc. v. McCoy, 376 P.2d 285 (Okl.1962).
Not only, in my opinion, did Lingerfelt fail to prove that Winn-Dixie’s method of displaying and packaging strawberries was negligent, but she also failed to prove that this alleged negligence was the proximate cause of her injuries. In order to discuss the proximate cause issue in this case, I must assume that the method of displaying the strawberries was negligent as “the application of proximate cause presupposes negligence.” Hardware Mutual Insurance Company v. Lukkin, 372 F.2d 8 (C.A.Okl.1967). Therefore assuming arguendo that Winn-Dixie was negligent in displaying and packaging the strawberries, was there any evidence that this negligence was the proximate cause of her injuries? Lingerfelt’s injuries must have resulted directly and proximately from Winn-Dixie’s negligence in the method of packaging and displaying of the strawberries before Winn-Dixie will be liable therefrom. Woodward v. Kinchen, 446 P.2d 375 (Okl.1968). In this case there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever as to how the strawberry got on the floor. We do know that the strawberry was on the floor several aisles away from the strawberry display. There are innumerable possibilities that come to mind. Did it fall out of its container because a shopping cart tipped over? Did it fall because someone put something in the basket on top of it and tipped the container over? Did a customer dislodge the berry while obtaining a berry to eat? Did a customer pick up a berry to eat from the display and then discard it on the floor several aisles away? Were customers playing catch with the strawberries? Many more examples can be envisioned, however, suffice it to say that there is no evidence that the so called negligent display of strawberries caused Lingerfelt’s injury. The proximate cause of any injury must be the efficient cause which sets in motion the chain of circumstances leading to the injury, and if the negligence complained of merely furnishes a condition by which the injury was possible and a subsequent act caused the injury, the existence of such condition is not the proximate cause of the injury. Thur v. Dunkley, 474 P.2d 403 (Okl.1970).
As was said in Barrans v. Hogan, 62 N.M. 79, 304 P.2d 880 (1956):
“... to say that the defendant did have knowledge that particles of food might fall to the floor at anytime, is not sufficient to charge them with negligence as the cause of plaintiff’s misfortune.” (Emphasis added.)
Lingerfelt must produce more than a mere showing of negligence in order to recover from Winn-Dixie for the acts of third persons. What the majority seems to imply is that if the Lingerfelts can show the possible presence of negligence on the part of Winn-Dixie in its packaging and displaying of strawberries, then she need proceed no further and the burden will shift to Winn-Dixie to prove that it in fact exercised due care and was not negligent. The majority says, in effect, that negligence alone is sufficient without any showing of proximate cause. In my opinion this is not the law and because of this “void” in the evidence as to the proximate cause issue the case should not have been submitted to a jury on this theory that a negligent act of the store owner in packaging was grounds *492for recovery. Where the admitted facts failed to show a causal connection between the act of negligence and injury alleged to have resulted therefrom, existence of proximate cause is a question of law for the court and it is the duty of the trial court to enter judgment for defendant. Cheatham v. VanDalsen, 350 P.2d 593 (Okl.1960); Schlender v. Andy Jansen Company, 380 P.2d 523 (Okl.1963). The trial court correctly surmised that this was a case where notice to the store owner of the strawberry being on the floor was the only viable question to be submitted to the jury.
In conclusion, the majority’s ruling in my opinion in effect amounts to imposition of liability on a “no fault basis” and store owners who display their fruits and vegetables in their usual and customary manner will become insurers. The result, of course, will be that stores will be forced to wrap in cellophane or other containers, their fresh produce which in my mind is not warranted or desired by the average store customer.
I am authorized to state that IRWIN, C. J., and HODGES, J., join in the views herein expressed.