Court Opinion

ID: 9847652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:04:06.307552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:25.380164
License: Public Domain

O’NEAL, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent, as I cannot agree, with the majority that the record discloses sufficient evidence to establish the negligence of the defendant, Hampton, as an employee of the Otis Elevator Company, to sustain the verdict rendered. The majority opinion tacitly concedes that there is a total absence of direct evidence to sustain plaintiff’s allegation that Hampton either inspected or operated the west elevator during the noon hour, or immediately prior to the accident to plaintiff at 1:00 o’clock when she returned for work.
The evidence of Sullivan, the building manager of the association, of King, its engineer, of Mrs. Williams, the other elevator operator, and of Hampton, is to the contrary. The majority opinion states that the record discloses certain circumstantial evidence which supports the conclusion reached.
It is conceded that a jury may accept circumstantial evidence and reject positive testimony in arriving at its verdict. One has never known, however, until now that a verdict may be sustained where the essential facts of negligence charged is based upon a mere inference or presumption without more. When the plaintiff, returned from-her. lunch hour, according to her own testimony, she did not see Mrs. Williams, the operator of the east elevator, nor King, the association’s engineer, nor the defendant, Hampton. After getting an elevator key, located on a mail box near the east wall of the building, she unlocked the door of the west elevator and backed into the open shaft.
Much is said in the majority opinion that on a previous occasion the plaintiff, when *417returning from lunch, found no key upon the mail box, so she pressed the button on the ground floor and when the door was opened Hampton and the association’s engineer were inside of the elevator. That on another occasion, Hampton and the building engineer were working on her elevator in the penthouse, and that she carried them down to the street entrance;' that Hampton went over to the east elevator’ and opened the elevator door; that, plaintiff observed an elevator key on the mail box and asked Hampton why he didn’t get Mrs. Williams’ key off of the box; that Mrs. Williams doesn’t know I am going to operate her elevator and that Hampton said: “That’s right. I am glad you noticed it.”
Upon these unconnected transactions, and upon the circumstance that after plaintiff fell into the elevator shaft, that she heard' the voice of Hampton which she assumed came from the elevator loft, and also heard the sound of footsteps, apparently emanating from the basement stairway, that an inference arises that the proof reasonably sustains the charge that Hampton operated the west elevator at the time of the accident. Mrs. Williams, King, Sullivan and Hampton gave direct, positive and unim-peached testimony that only Mrs. Williams operated the west elevator from 12:00 to 1:00 p. m. on the day of the accident. Evidently, the majority opinion deems it unimportant to refer to the undisputed evidence that the two- keys for the elevators were identical in appearance, and were used interchangeably in the opening of the elevator doors. The inference is thus indulged that the presence of a key on the mail box was notice that the west elevator was not then in use. That inference is entirely dissipated in view of the plaintiff’s testimony that she was informed at the noon hour and immediately before going to her lunch, that the east elevator was still under repair. The evidence is also without contradiction that it was the uniform custom that one of the elevators be operated at all times.
That plaintiff had been engaged as the operator of the west elevator for'approximately five years prior to the accident involved herein; that Mrs. Williams was the operator of the east elevator; that the Masonic Temple Association Building is a six story office building, and that the elevator entrances are located on the street floor; the boiler room and engineer’s workshop is located in the basement of the building. At each floor level, including the basement, there is a dual-paneled sliding shaft door, and behind each door inside of the shaft there is a handle-locking arm device. Under regulations of the Association'one elevator was to be kept in constant use.
At the hour of 11:00 o’clock a. m., Mrs. Williams went to lunch and upon her return at 12:00 o’clock plaintiff had her lunch period. At these lunch periods it was their habit and custom to. stop their elevator at the street floor entrance, turn off the light in the elevator, close the door and place the elevator key upon the mail box on the east wall of the building. These keys were a cylinder like rod approximately six to eight inches in length and were identical in appearance and would unlock either elevator door. By inserting the key in the elevator shaft door and by exerting pressure the elevator operator would break down the locking arms and by pushing the door apart would then enter the elevator. Hampton arrived at the building on December 7, 1951, at approximately 10:30 in the morning; that he and King, the Association’s engineer, took over the east elevator then being operated by Mrs. Williams, for inspection and minor repairs. Near the hour of 12:00 o’clock Hampton and King stopped work upon-the east elevator and went out for lunch. At 12:0Q o’clock plaintiff went out for her lunch and returned approximately at the hour of 1:00 o’clock. Upon her return to the building she did not see either Hampton, King, or Mrs. Williams. She thereupon procured an elevator key from the top of the mail box, unlocked the west elevator door, stepped in and fell to the basement of the elevator shaft. She was not unconscious and as she lay in the bottom of the shaft she could observe a light in the east elevator then in operation; that she heard Mrs. Williams say: “Goldie has fallen down the elevator shaft” and heard Hampton say: “Where *418is she?” That she heard Hampton’s voice which came either from the penthouse or from the west elevator which appeared to her to be on an upper floor; that immediately the west elevator came down to the main floor and stopped and she heard footsteps coming down the stairs to the basement, and that ■ shortly thereafter Hampton and King opened the basement elevator door and removed her from the shaft pit;
King, the Association’s engineer, called by plaintiff, testified that at 1:00 on December 7, 1951, he was in the boiler room in the basement of the building at which time Hampton came to the door of the room and said: “There is someone' has fallen in the elevator pit. Let’s get something to open the door with." They immediately got a little rod off of the work bench, opened the elevator door and removed Mrs. Melott from the pit.
After the court had overruled defendants’ demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence they submitted testimony tending to establish the following facts: Hampton testified that he. and King worked on the east elevator until approximately 12:00 noon and that King parked the east elevator on the street level, closed the door and placed the key on the mail box; that at approximately 1:00 o’clock he returned to the building and went down to the basement to contact King; that a few moments thereafter some man ran down the stairway and yelled, “Someone fell down the elevator shaft.” That King at the time was in the boiler room and. that King procured a small rod with which he opened the elevator door and they removed the plaintiff from the elevator shaft.
King, ■ the Association’s engineer, being recalled by the defendants, testified that at approximately 10:40 on the morning of December 7, 1951, he took over the east elevator then being operated by Mrs. Williams, and advised her that he and Hampton were. going to inspect it; that they had not completed their inspection at 12:00 and that- he parked the east elevator on the street floor entrance, closed the door and put the key on top of the mail box; that Hampton went out for lunch and that he had his lunch in the basement of the building; that the east elevator was kept out of use on that day until approximately 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon; that from the time of taking over the east elevator at 10:30 in the morning to the hour of 2:00 in the afternoon it had not been operated by either elevator operator; that at approximately the hour of 1:00 he was in the boiler room in the basement of the building when Hampton told him that someone had fallen in the shaft; that they procured a small rod and opened the basement’s elevator door and found plaintiff in the pit; that he asked her: “Goldie, how in the world did you happen to walk off in that elevator pit?” And she said, “Mr. King, I just wasn’t thinking.”
. Mrs. Williams testified that she had operated the east elevator two years prior to the accident on December 7, 1951; that at noon on the day of the accident, when she returned from her lunch at 12:00 o’clock she asked Mrs. Melott if King and Hampton had finished their work on her elevator. When Mrs. Melott advised her that the work on the east elevator had not been completed the witness took over the west elevator and continued to operate it exclusively from 12:00 noon until approximately 2:30 in the afternoon at which time repairs on the east elevator were completed; that all passenger service during said hours was carried on in the west elevator by the witness; that at the time the plaintiff fell into the shaft the witness was unloading passengers off of the west elevator on an upper floor of the building. As she was lowering the west elevator to the street floor she heard a noise or some racket and when her elevator arrived on the street floor she told a man standing in the lobby that Mrs. Melott had fallen in the elevator shaft and requested him to go down.to the basement and call Mr. King; that shortly thereafter she ran the west elevator down to the basement and brought the plaintiff up to the street floor.
‘Mr. Sullivan, the building manag'er of the Association, testified that he maintained an office on the fourth floor of the Association’s building, and that immediately prior to the accident he observed Mrs. *419Williams operating the west elevator; that the east elevator had not been in use from approximately 10:30 in the morning until approximately 2:00 in the afternoon.
Hampton, being recalled as a witness, testified that under the contract between the Otis Elevator Company and the Association he made inspections of the elevators at monthly periods; these inspections were made at various hours during the day and always made in company with Mr. King, the Association’s engineer; that on the day in question they examined some defective wiring on the east elevator, the witness riding on top of the car being operated by King; that at the noon hour the east elevator was parked on the street floor entrance, and that he left the building for his lunch; that when he returned at l.:00 o’clock he went down to the basement of the building to get in touch with King; that a man ran down the stairway and yelled, “Someone fell down the elevator shaft.” That he immediately contacted King, who was then in the boiler room, and that they opened the east elevator door and did not see any one, then they opened the west elevator door and. saw the plaintiff lying in the pit; that prior to the accident neither he nor King had touched the west elevator; that the west elevator was not inspected until sometime after 2:00 in the afternoon. He further testified that he had no knowledge as to when either of the elevator operators went out to their lunch and what instructions, if any, were given them by the Association with reference to handling the keys to the elevator doors.
A review of the entire record leads me to the conclusion that the trial court erred in overruling defendants’ demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence, and likewise erred in refusing to sustain defendants’ motion for a directed verdict.
With the utmost respect to my associates, I think they have based their conclusion upon the tenuous circumstances of unrelated instances set out in the opinion, which, at most, creates an inference of negligence, unsupported by either positive or circumstantial testimony. By adding one inference upon another the majority has been lead into a labyrinth of error in their disposition of the case.