63 Wash. 414 | Wash. | 1911
Appellant is the owner of a large furniture and carpet store at Seattle. On April 28, 1909, Mrs. Chilberg visited the store for the purpose of purchasing some carpet. She was conducted to the carpet department, and
The first question to be determined, giving full effect to Mrs. Chilberg’s testimony as to the manner of the accident, is, does it establish negligence? Negligence is a breach of duty which one person owes to another by reason of the relation existing between them, and the duty in each particular instance is to be tested by what the ordinarily prudent person would do in a like situation. ' It is shown to be customary for carpet dealers to exhibit their stock upon a hard wood floor, which by reason of the constant slipping of carpets over and upon it, is always smooth. It
This rule must be applied with reference to the situation disclosed by the evidence, and appellant’s apparent arrangement for the display of its goods to the best advantage both to itself and to its customers. With this in mind as the law, we cannot find that it unreasonably or unnecessarily exposed its customers to dangers. It w,as not required to so exhibit its goods or maintain its store as to warrant the safety of its customers from all injury or risk of danger. When it used such diligence as ordinarily prudent and good business men employed in like situations, it performed its whole duty. It was not negligence to display its carpets upon the floor, nor was it negligence to use a hard maple floor for that purpose, or to leave the small carpet upon the floor after it had fulfilled its use in the-display. Mrs. Chilberg was accustomed to polished hard wood floors. She had them in her own home and knew rugs and small pieces of carpet upon such floors will sometimes slip when stepped upon. Such fact is within the knowledge of all men who enter the modern home with its rugs and hard wood floors. We cannot say that it was negligence for the appellant to maintain -the same floor condition in its store that Mrs. Chilberg maintained .in her own home; or. that in inviting her to inspect its carpets upon such a floor, it heedlessly and unnecessarily exposed her to an unknown danger. The .case does not fall within the principle announced in holding mer
Appellant having shown it followed the usual custom in the place and manner of its display of its merchandise, using the same method employed by ordinarily prudent men engaged in the same line of business, there being no evidence to the contrary, and the accident itself being no proof of negligence, there was no proof of negligence to submit to the jury, and the motion to dismiss should have been sustained.
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded with instructions to dismiss.
Mount, Chadwick, Crow, and Ellis, JJ., concur.