36 Wash. 183 | Wash. | 1904
Appellants brought this action against respondents to recover damages for personal injuries. The negligence alleged in the complaint is that the respondents, who were merchants, carelessly and negligently maintained an open and unguarded hatchway on the main floor of their store building, where persons entering and using said store for the purposes of trading therein were liable to fall into said hatchway. It is then alleged that appellant Eva L. Dunn, on December 21, 1902, while in said store building for the purpose of dealing with said respondents, fell through said hatchway to the basement beneath, breaking her right arm, and otherwise bruising her. The answer of the defendants denied the allegations of the complaint, and alleged contributory negligence on the part of said Eva L. Dunn. When appellants had introduced all their evidence, the lower court, upon motion of respondents, directed a verdict in, favor of respondents. Erom this order the plaintiffs appeal.
The only question presented on this appeal arises upon the evidence and is, did the court err in holding that the plaintiffs’ evidence showed no negligence of defendants, but did show contributory negligence on the part of appellant? The evidence shows that respondents’ store building is one hundred and twenty feet long, north and south, by one hundred feet wide, east and west The entrance is at the south. Hear the north end of the store, a stairway four feet wide leads from the main floor to the basement. This stairway faces west, while the main aisle
We have carefully read over the evidence, and we think no negligence whatever on the part of respondents is shown. The stairway was an ordinary stairway, protected on both sides by railings and tables next thereto. It was not in the main aisle of the store, but was crosswise thereto, so that a person intending to enter the stairway must turn at right angles from the aisle. It is not negligence per se to maintain a stairway in a store or public place (Larkin v. O’Neill, 119 N. Y. 221, 23 N. E. 563) ; and yet this is the only negligence which from the evidence can reasonably be claimed. There appears to be nothing unusual or dangerous about the stairway or its construction. No man of ordinary prudence would suppose that any one, possessed of his natural faculties, would fall down it in the daytime. It is true, appellant says it was dark at the stairway, but she was wearing darkened glasses. Other witnesses state it was light there; that the stairway was within twenty feet of win
The judgment is affirmed.
Fullerton, O. J., and Hadley, Dunbar, and Anders, JJ., concur.