Court Opinion

ID: 9613526
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:17:50.41842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:18.022047
License: Public Domain

Barnhill, J.
That the plaintiff was an invitee of the defendant at the time he suffered his injuries is not debatable. Pafford v. Construction Co., 217 N.C. 730, 9 S.E. 2d 408.
So far, however, this Court has not held that water alone, unmixed with oil or grease or other slippery substance, on a floor over which an invitee may be expected to pass, creates a hazard against which the proprietor must guard. Counsel do not call our attention to any decision from any other jurisdiction to that effect. See, however, Kresge Co. v. *732Fader, 158 N.E. 174, 58 A.L.R. 132; Jutras v. Amoskeag Mfg. Co., 147 A. 753; Shumaker v. Charada Inv. Co., 49 P. 2d 44; Kraus v. Wolf, 171 N.E. 63; and Bridgford v. Stewart Dry Goods Co., 231 S.W. 22.
Be that as it may, we are of the opinion plaintiff’s own account of the mishap which caused the injuries for which he seeks recovery clearly discloses a failure on his part to exercise ordinary care for his own safety which, in any event, bars his right of recovery.
He testified that the loaded truck was too heavy to push. He had to pull it. Necessarily this placed considerable pressure on his feet. Yet he undertook to back into the warehouse and pull the truck over the doorsill without looking where he was going or giving any attention whatsoever to the condition of the floor where he would be compelled to place his feet in order to apply the additional pressure required to propel the truck across the obstruction created by the doorsill. On his own testimony he might as well have blindfolded himself before entering the building. In practical effect that is what he did. These facts, to which plaintiff himself testified, will not permit any reasonable inference other than that he failed to exercise ordinary care for his own safety. Porter v. Niven, 221 N.C. 220, 19 S.E. 2d 864; Conley v. Pearce-Young-Angel Co., 224 N.C. 211, 29 S.E. 2d 740; Lee v. Upholstery Co., 227 N.C. 88, 40 S.E. 2d 688; Holderfield v. Trucking Co., 232 N.C. 623, 61 S.E. 2d 904. A plaintiff will not be permitted to recover for injuries resulting from a hazard he helped to create. Atkins v. Transportation Co., 224 N.C. 688, 32 S.E. 2d 209; Ingram v. Smoky Mountain Stages, Inc., 225 N.C. 444, 35 S.E. 2d 337.
In Porter v. Niven, supra, where judgment of nonsuit was affirmed, the facts are sufficiently similar to render the decision therein pertinent here. In that case, Denny, J., speaking for the Court, says:
“In the instant case, apparently, the plaintiff pushed the screen door open with one of the milk cans which he was carrying, and simply took it for granted that there was no obstruction in the passageway, and failed to make any observation as to whether or not there was an obstruction in the passageway, when by his own testimony he could have seen the churn if he had looked.”
The judgment entered in the court below is
Affirmed.