66 A.2d 774 | Pa. | 1949
Plaintiffs, husband and wife, appeal from the order of the court below dismissing plaintiff's exception to the court's action in entering a judgment for the defendant as a matter of law. Plaintiffs charged defendant, a theatre owner, with negligence in failing to provide safe accommodations for its patrons while attending their theatre, averring that defendant failed to properly inspect and maintain equipment and machinery, the defective condition of which caused personal injury. Defendant filed no answer to the complaint, and the case was tried without a jury. The trial judge after hearing plaintiff's testimony found for defendant as a matter of law.
On the evening of September 6, 1945, plaintiff with her two children attended a motion picture in one of *176 defendant's theatres known as the Forum, located at Frankford Avenue and Bridge Streets, Philadelphia. Plaintiff testified that after they had been seated for sometime she heard a "terrible noise in the ceiling" of the theatre, then a "whistling sound." She "threw her arms over her head and ducked." Within a few seconds there was a "terrible thud" on her arm. A greasy, threaded bolt 2 1/2 to 3 inches long and about a half inch in diameter with a square head like a nut was found on the floor close to where plaintiff had been sitting. It is undisputed that this bolt struck her arm. The bolt struck several silver bracelets she was wearing and broke two of them. Her arm and dress were covered with grease, and one leg of her son's trousers was soiled with the same substance. No further evidence was presented. The court in its opinion dismissing the plaintiff's exception stated that the bolt "broke out of it (the ceiling) in some way," and without apparent explanation from the defendant assumed that the accident was caused by a defect "unseen, unknown and undiscoverable."
In the absence of exculpatory evidence by the defendant, the circumstance that a greasy bolt dropped from the ceiling of defendant's theatre is evidence from which negligence may be inferred. It is not reasonable to believe that the bolt fell out of the sky. A patron of a theatre is not charged with the responsibility of conducting an investigation of the theatre's ceiling before sitting under it and witnessing a performance. In the absence of an explanation to the contrary, it is reasonable to infer that the bolt was attached to some equipment in the theatre. The rebuttal of this natural inference was a duty the circumstances cast upon the defendant. For the absolving of the defendant from legal responsibility for an injury caused by the fall of this bolt on one of its patrons, it is only fair to call *177 upon the defendant to show that it exercised due care to prevent harm to its patrons.
In Durning et al. v. Hyman,
In the Durning case we quoted with approval the following from Shafer v. Lacock, Hawthorn Co.,
There is a principle of evidence that the burden of proving a fact is upon the party who presumably has peculiar means of knowledge enabling him to prove its falsity if it is false. Wigmore on Evidence; third edition, Vol. IX, section 2486, p. 275, points out that while "this consideration furnishes no universal working rule," it "takes its place among other considerations of fairness and experience as a most important one to be kept in mind in apportioning the burden of proof in a specific case." If in the instant case the bolt which caused plaintiff's injury was no part of the theatre equipment and in no way under defendant's control, the reasonable inference would be that the defendant was *179 not responsible for plaintiff's injury. On the other hand, if the bolt was a part of the equipment of the theatre or in any way under defendant's control there would be prima facie an inference that the defendant was responsible for its falling through space and hitting the plaintiff.
Whether or not this bolt was a part of the theatre equipment is a problem which the defendant possessed better means of solving than did the plaintiff. If the bolt was not under the control of the defendant it would be a very simple matter for the defendant to offer proof of that fact. It would be impractical and unfair to demand that the plaintiff furnish proof that the bolt was a part of the equipment of the defendant's theatre or was otherwise under defendant's control. The plaintiff proved enough to cast upon the defendant the burden of showing that it was not responsible either through its acts or through its neglect for the movement of the bolt which struck and injured the plaintiff while she was a patron of its theatre.
In Gable et ux. v. Golder,
In the case of Bechtel v. Franklin Trust Co.,
The judgment is reversed with a venire. *181