Walker v. Roosevelt Hotel Co.
| Citation | 241 N.W. 484,214 Iowa 1150 |
| Decision Date | 08 March 1932 |
| Docket Number | 41048 |
| Parties | L. R. WALKER, Appellant, v. ROOSEVELT HOTEL COMPANY et al., Appellees |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Iowa |
REHEARING DENIED JUNE 24, 1932.
Appeal from Linn District Court.--A. B. CLARK, Judge.
Action at law for damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff in the hotel of one of the defendants, and resulting, as alleged, from the concurring negligence of both defendants. A verdict and judgment thereon were rendered for the plaintiff as against the Roosevelt Hotel Company. A verdict against the plaintiff and for the Troy Laundry Company, and judgment thereon, were likewise rendered. The verdict for the plaintiff against the Hotel Company was small, and the plaintiff moved for a new trial as against both defendants, which motion was overruled. The plaintiff has appealed.
Affirmed.
Wheeler Elliott, Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, for appellee Roosevelt Hotel Company.
Marvin C. Levsen and Barnes, Chamberlain, Hanzlik & Thompson, for appellee Troy Laundry Company.
Donnelly Lynch, Anderson & Lynch, for appellant.
EVANS, J. WAGNER, C. J., and DE GRAFF, ALBERT, MORLING, and KINDIG, JJ., concur.
The accident upon which the suit is predicated occurred at 5:30 P.M. on April 4, 1930, in, or near, a certain hallway on the third floor of the hotel of one of the defendants. The first named defendant owned and operated the Roosevelt "Hotel at Cedar Rapids, and will be referred to herein as the "Hotel Company." The Troy Laundry Company owned and operated a laundry in the same city, and will hereafter be referred to herein as the "Laundry Company." The plaintiff at the time of the accident was, and for two years had been, a guest or roomer in the hotel of the Hotel Company. The alleged injuries of the plaintiff resulted from his tripping over a cart or truck used in the hotel for the purpose of transporting daily the linen of the hotel to its linen room. Neither defendant has any interest in the business of the other, as such. Neither defendant is a servant, employee, or agent of the other. It is not claimed in the petition that either defendant is liable in any degree for the negligent acts of the other. The liability of each is predicated by the plaintiff upon allegation that each by his own concurring negligence contributed to the consummation of plaintiff's injury. The Hotel Company was a comparatively new enterprise, which had begun operation three or four years before the date of the accident. One of the problems in its enterprise was to make provision for its laundry work. It contracted in writing with the defendant Laundry Company, a going laundry concern in the same city, for the performance of all its laundry work for a compensation stated in the contract. A part of the arrangement was that the Laundry Company should do all transportation of the laundry, both soiled and clean, and that the clean laundry should be daily delivered at the linen room of the Hotel Company, which room was upon the third floor of the Hotel. Under this arrangement these parties had operated uniformly and consistently up to the time of the accident, and since. The hotel had two passenger elevators and one freight elevator, all located in close proximity to each other. One Clarence Jacque, an employee of the Laundry Company, was in sole charge of the transportation of the hotel laundry back and forth between the laundry and the hotel linen room. The clean laundry was first unloaded from the laundry truck into the basement of the hotel. It was contained in large baskets. In the hotel basement these baskets were placed in the freight elevator and transported therein to the third floor. The distance between the freight elevator and the linen room on third floor was about 100 feet. The transportation of the baskets from the freight elevator to the linen room was done by means of a small handcart, capable of carrying two baskets at a time. This handcart was brought up from the basement in the same freight elevator as the baskets. Upon delivery of the baskets at the linen room, the handcart was returned first to the freight elevator and then back to the basement, where it was kept under lock and one key, which key was kept in the exclusive possession of Jacque. It was on a return trip of this handcart from linen room to the freight elevator that plaintiff tripped upon it. The detailed circumstances of the accident are quite essential to an understanding of its legal aspects. On the third floor of the hotel is a hallway, which extends from east to west across the entire building. It is 116 feet in length. The linen room is at its east end. On the north side of the hall is a series of guest rooms facing south upon the hall. Near the west end of this hall is a so-called alcove which extends to the north for a distance of 9 feet. The width of this alcove from east to west is about 7 feet. On each side of this alcove, east and west, are the passenger elevators. Their doors respectively fact the alcove and face each other. At the north end of this alcove is a door, which opens into a so-called service hall. Into this service hall the door of the freight elevator opens. To pass from the freight elevator to the linen room, one passes from the elevator into the service hall, from the service hall south into the alcove through the north door of the alcove, then through the alcove into the east and west hallway, then east along the hallway to the linen room. At the time of the accident, Jacque had delivered the clean linen at the linen room. He was returning with his cart to the freight elevator. He brought his cart into the alcove and was in the act of opening the north door thereof in order to pass through to the freight elevator, when one passenger cage came to the third floor and opened its door for the discharge of its passenger, the plaintiff herein. Another guest (witness Anselme) was in the alcove waiting for the elevator to carry him down. The plaintiff stepped out of the elevator into the alcove and in some way, quite unexplained in the record, tripped upon the cart and fell to the floor in the main hallway ten feet distant from the cart. The fall resulted in an injury, in the nature of a sprain, to the "small of his back."
When the Laundry Company first began to perform its contract, it used no cart. Jacque put his baskets on the freight elevator and took them out on the third floor. He then dragged the baskets through the alcove and over the hallway to the linen room. This method appeared to be damaging to the carpets, and the Hotel Company asked for a better method of delivery. The handcart was the result of this request. It consisted of a mere skeleton made of angle iron two inches square. The framework thus constructed was laid upon iron casters about six inches in diameter. Later, rubber cushioned tires were put upon the casters. At one end was a so-called upright handle. This was made by the use of two upright pipes connected at the top with a cross bar. This served the convenience of the operator as a handle to pull or to push the cart. The cart was about four feet in...
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