Court Opinion

ID: 9586646
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:13:40.456225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:46.677117
License: Public Domain

Bussey, Justice
(dissenting).
When all of the evidence and the inferences reasonably deducible therefrom are viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, I conclude that the instant case was properly submitted to the jury and, accordingly, dissent.
Certain additional pertinent facts should, I think, be stated. Plaintiff did not observe any debris on the floor, other than the piece of banana peel, but did observe dirt and what “looked like water around the stand.” From Monday through Thursday the floor of the store was cleaned only every night, but such was cleaned from time to time, as needed, on Fridays and Saturdays and, apparently, on the particular occasion had not been cleaned since the previous night.
*81It has been held that descriptions of banana peelings, similar to the descriptions here given, were sufficient to give rise to a reasonable inference that the peelings had been there long enough for reasonable care to require defendants to discover and remove such. Anjou v. Boston Elevated Ry. Co., 208 Mass. 273, 94 N. E. 386; Williamson v. F. W. Woolworth Co. (1960), 237 Miss. 141, 112 So. (2d) 529. But even if it be conceded that the appearance of the banana peel, as described by the witnesses in the instant case, was insufficient, standing alone, to give rise to such an inference, nevertheless, it is, I think, a circumstance to be considered with other circumstances in determining the sufficiency of the evidence.
The statement made by the produce manager gives rise to moré than one reasonable inference as to what he meant or had in mind, but I think no inference consistent with due care on the part of the defendant for the safety of its customers. It is important to note that the statement was made with reference to what had just happened and with knowledge of the appearance of the banana peel which admittedly caused the fall. Since he spoke with such reference, it is a fair and reasonable inference that he did have knowledge of the peeling on the floor and that such prompted him to make the statement. Hewitt v. Katz Drug Co., Inc., 199 S. W. (2d) 872 (Mo. App. 1947). Another reasonable inference is that, from the apperance of the banana peel, the produce manager concluded that it had been on the floor sufficiently long that such would have been discovered and removed had the place been cleaned up when it “should have”. Only slightly differently stated, another reasonable in ference is simply that from all of the circumstances the produce manager concluded that but for the defendant’s failure to more promptly and properly clean the place, the plaintiff most probably would not have been injured. It was for the jury to determine the proper inference to be drawn from his statement.
Lewis, J., concurs.