146 Minn. 347 | Minn. | 1920
Appeal from a judgment, entered after an order denying defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, in an action brought for the recovery of damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff under the following circumstances:
On March 8, 1919, between 9 and 10 o’clock in the forenoon, plaintiff went to defendant’s store to examine curtain goods then on display and exhibited to customers in the following manner: Bolts of goods were laid on tables arranged in two parallel rows. The space between the two rows
We are asked to reverse on two grounds: (1) That it conclusively appears that defendant was not guilty of any negligence; (2) that it conclusively appears that plaintiff was herself guilty of contributory negligence.
There is no dispute about the law of the case. A shopkeeper is under legal obligation to keep and maintain his premises in reasonably safe condition for use as to all whom he expressly or impliedly invites to enter the premises. Corrigan v. Elsinger, 81 Minn. 42, 83 N. W. 492; Albachten v. Golden Rule, 135 Minn. 381, 160 N. W. 1012; McDermott v. Sallaway, 198 Mass. 517, 85 N. E. 422, 21 L.R.A.(N.S.) 456; Bloomer v. Snellenburg, 221 Pa. 25, 69 Atl. 1124, 21 L.R.A.(N.S.) 464. Within the rule laid down in these cases, the evidence made the question of defendant’s negligence one for the determination of the jury. Plaintiff had the right to walk along the rows of tables to examine the goods defendant had placed upon them for the very purpose of catching the eye and attracting the attention of its customers. It could not reasonably
Johnson v. Ramberg, 49 Minn. 341, 51 N. W. 1043, and Albachten v. Golden Rule, supra, are clearly distinguishable. In neither case was the plaintiff’s attention distracted by a display of goods. Defendant asserts that such -was also the case here, that plaintiff had finished her inspection of the goods on the first table and was in the act of going to the next one when she fell. The record hardly bears out the assertion. On eross-ex-aminatioh plaintiff testified that the curtain goods were on six of the tables, that she was looking for materials for drapes and had not yet made a selection when she tripped and fell. She was then asked this question: "You were still shopping were you ?” and answered: “Why I hadn’t got a chance to go to the second table. I was just looking at the materials when this happened.”
Defendant was not entitled to judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and the order denying its motion is therefore affirmed.