Court Opinion

ID: 9724550
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:01:08.766019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:02.416956
License: Public Domain

Gordon, J.
(dissenting). I do not believe that the plaintiff’s action, should be dismissed. While the trial court’s instruction regarding res ipsa loquitur may necessitate a new trial, I must respectfully dissent from the direction for dismissal.
The defendant contractor was aware that there were loose stones in the upper regions of the building. At the time the plaintiff sustained his injury, the contractor had completed 30 percent of the reconstruction. In view of such facts, can it be said that this plaintiff has no case as a matter of law? In my opinion, there may be a valid cause of action for this plaintiff under the concept of duty discussed in Dwyer v. Jackson Co. (1963), 20 Wis. (2d) 318, 121 N. W. (2d) 881.
*140In the Dwyer Case, the plaintiff was injured when the folding chair in which she was sitting collapsed. A jury finding in favor of the plaintiff was sustained. There was evidence that the chair was old and that the defendant had previously destroyed a number of such chairs because of their being out of shape. With reference to the defendant’s duty, the court said, at page 323 :
“His duty includes reasonable inspection. He is not liable for injury caused by a latent defect which would not have been revealed in the course of reasonable inspection. . . . The jury could reasonably believe that an employee, making a reasonably careful inspection, would have noticed the same condition and removed the chair. The inspections made by the manager and the maid may have been deemed somewhat casual. The jury could consider that the age of the chair and the experience the hotel had had with similar chairs called for closer scrutiny.”
In the instant case, the contractor knew of the disrepair of the terra-cotta coping. Under the Dwyer Case, he had a duty to inspect, and a jury question was presented as to whether such inspection was reasonable.
The jury evidently considered that the situation was a dangerous one, because it assessed 39 percent of the negligence upon the plaintiff. I do not think it just to rule as a matter of law that the defendant was free of negligence. I would order a new trial.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Fairchild joins in this dissent.