76 Mich. 435 | Mich. | 1889
On March 21, 1887, at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, plaintiff fell down an elevator shaft from the ground floor to the bottom, in a building partly occupied by defendant for making wooden tripods. The declaration relies as grounds for the charge of negligence on the alleged failure to have the elevator shaft guarded in any way, and the darkness of the room upon which it opened. Plaintiff was averred to have been unacquainted with the premises, and to have been there for the lawful purpose of transacting business, at defendant’s request, and to have been exercising due care.
The defendant’s testimony indicated that the elevator had proper doors, and was not left open or unguarded. It also indicated that the room was not without sufficient light, and that plaintiff had no business where he_ was, and exercised no caution, but was hurt by his own heedlessness or fault. It was claimed on the trial that plaintiff’s own testimony made out no cause of action, and, as this question lies at the threshold of the case, it requires attention.
The plaintiff’s statement is, in substance, that he had held some interviews with defendant concerning the business of making' and finishing tripods. The building in which the work was done had been partly occupied for defendant’s work, and partly by a company making felt goods, who had recently
In one or more instances plaintiff had gone up in the ele
Plaintiff states, further, that he had the sander taken by a team, and that the teamster took it in by the side passage into the alley, and opposite the north door; that plaintiff, coming a little while after, went by the same way, and tried to open the north door, but found it fastened. He then went to the middle door, and opened it, and when he closed it he found himself in what he calls a darkish room, not altogether dark. He says:
“ I saw a little light shining through here, ahead of me, just a dim light, and I walked up here, saw this light, took it to be an opening between the door, between the two-sections, the middle and the north sectious. I turned to my right, and, as I supposed, was going through into this department through a door, and I stepped into a hole.”
After he fell in he looked up and saw the elevator was standing at the third floor above.
Plaintiff was allowed, against objection, to show that a few weeks after the accident he went into this same storm-room, and to describe various things he then found which obstructed the light, and which he claimed were there when he was hurt. It appears, however, from his minute description, that he.
Taking plaintiff’s own testimony as a correct version of the disputed facts, he had not ascertained and did not promise to a certainty that the sander could be obtained at all, or when it would be obtained, or when it could or would be brought if so obtained, or where it would be wanted or placed. He gave no notice to defendant to be ready to receive it, and gave no notice of its arrival when it came. He had never been informed that there was, and there was not in fact, any door of communication between the north and middle sections in that part of the building; and he had no reason for assuming that, the north section was the proper place to put the machine, or that the door of that section was the proper place to receive it. From his account of his visits to the place to confer with defendant, it is apparent that he was very heedless and unobserving of his surroundings, and knew very lit-" tie more of -them than if he had never seen them,. He did know where the office was, and had when visiting the build- ’ ing entered it by the front and not by the rear.
It is no more than plain common sense, that a stranger who comes on business or otherwise has no right to choose for himself his means of ingress and egress, and has no right to determine where bulky articles shall be unloaded, or to unload them without inquiry and notice. It was plaintiff’s business to go to the office and find out what was to be done with the machine, as well as to enable defendant to take his own measures and use his own men to unload and place it. According to his own story, he knew nothing about the uses or condition of the rear part of the middle section. It had never been brought to his attention as a place where he could
As the time when plaintiff went into the storm-room was at least about two hours before sunset, and the room, which was a very small one, had lights which, whether clean or dirty, occupied a large share of the rear end, and he subsequently found them to give light enough to see all that was important to be seen, and as he says that on this occasion he saw the lights in the elevator shaft immediately after entering the door, when it was, as he says, some seven feet away, it was his business if he found it obscure to wait until his eyes got accustomed to the light before moving round at haphazard, without using any care whatever to know where he was going. No one has any right to endanger himself, or to disturb other people’s arrangements, by moving round in the dark — if it is dark — in a strange room, into which he has entered of his own accord and without direction. If, instead of hurting himself, he had injured or destroyed some fragile and valuable article left there, he would have found no reasonable excuse for his trespass. He is in no better position because he was seriously hurt than if he had hurt somebody or something else. He is himself responsible for his own misfortune, and made out no case for redress.
As we can see no ground on which plaintiff could recover in any event, we do not think it worth while to discuss the other errors alleged. There was no good reason, that we can see, why the jury should not have seen the premises, or why the photographs should have been excluded, that should not have equally shut out a large portion of plaintiff’s testimony of conditions not contemporaneous. Testimony of localities
Judgment should be reversed, with costs of both courts.