Court Opinion

ID: 9649990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:17:32.544017+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:19:51.704836
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Musmanno:
If a store owner maintains an oily, greasy floor with moveable racks which will slide, slip, tip or upset as a result of conditions which are foreseeable, I believe that a jury question results as to whether he is not negligent in such maintenance if a customer is injured because of such slipping, sliding or. upsetting. The least a customer should expect when he enters a retail establishment is that its fixtures will not knock him over like loose furniture in a pitching ship at sea.
I believe that the facts in the case of Polinelli v. Union Supply, 403 Pa. 547, are so sufficiently close to the facts in this case that the principle therein enunciated should control this litigation. In that case Justice EAGEN said: "Union's (defendant owner) contention that if any negligence existed on its part, it was not the proximate cause of the accident is also without merit. It is argued that the act of the carpenter, an employee of Hileman, by jostling the wife-plaintiff, was *286the primary, efficient and proximate cause of the injury. Under the facts, whether or not Union's negligence was the proximate cause of the accident was for the jury. One, who negligently creates a dangerous situation, cannot escape liability for the natural and probable consequences thereof, even though the innocent act of a third party may have contributed to the result. Jeloszewski v. Sloan, 375 Pa. 360, 100 A. 2d 480 (1953); Jowett v. Pa. Power Co., 383 Pa. 330, 118 A. 2d 452 (1955); Landis v. Conestoga T. Co. (No. 1), 349 Pa. 97, 36 A. 2d 465 (1944); Murray v. Frick, 277 Pa. 190, 121 Atl. 47 (1923); [29 A.L.R. 74;] Christman v. Segal, 143 Pa. Super. 87, 17 A. 2d 676 (1941); Restatement, Torts, § 447." (Matter in parenthesis supplied.)
I would, therefore, remove the nonsuit and give the injured plaintiff her day in court, which she has not yet had.