Berube v. Economy Grocery Stores Corp.
| Decision Date | 30 November 1943 |
| Citation | 315 Mass. 89,51 N.E.2d 777 |
| Parties | BERUBE v. ECONOMY GROCERY STORES CORPORATION (two cases). |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Exceptions from Superior Court; Walsh, Judge.
Action of tort by Helen Berube against Economy Grocery Stores Corporation for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of defendant, and action by Robert Berube, husband of Helen Berube, against Economy Grocery Stores Corporation to recover consequential damages. There were verdicts for plaintiffs, but under reserved leave the judge entered verdicts for defendant, and the plaintiffs bring exceptions.
Exceptions sustained, and judgments directed to be entered for plaintiffs on verdicts.
Before FIELD, C. J., and LUMMUS, DOLAN, COX, and RONAN, JJ.
F. I. Rose and L. Jablon, both of Boston, for plaintiffs.
R. J. Coffin and T. H. Mahony, both of Boston, for defendant.
These are actions of tort, the first to recover compensation for personal injuries, sustained by the plaintiff, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant, and the second by her husband to recover consequential damages.
The jury could have found properly the following facts: On the day of the accident the plaintiff Helen (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff), in the company of her sister, was shopping in the defendant's so-called ‘Stop and Shop’ market on River Street in Hyde Park. Entering the shop the plaintiff walked by a ‘long vegetable counter’ on her right. Reaching the end of the counter she proceeded to turn and ‘walk past the end of the counter.’ On the end of this counter were displayed ‘boxes of squash’ which were ‘raised on some other boxes or bags and which were titled in a slanting direction backward.’ Turning at the end of this counter the plaintiff ‘felt * * * [her] heel get caught in something hard * * * ‘stiff like” and she ‘skidded right down, falling on * * * [her] back in a twisting way * * * [she] could feel * * * [her] foot skid in something that was underneath * * * [her] right foot.’ There was a ‘big skid’ mark where the plaintiff fell. When she arose she saw that what she slid on was ‘squash seeds * * * like shavings and seeds too, all the center of the squash * * * and it was all dirty and grimy looking.’ It was about a foot in area. Some of the seeds that were on the floor were very dirty and black, some of the seeds were still sticking into the ‘mass' that remained on the floor; others, dislodged by the plaintiff's foot, were of a yellow color and lighter than those that were left. Some of the seeds that adhered to the plaintiff's shoe were ‘very dirty looking * * * very black looking.’ The ‘mass' that remained on the floor not affected by the ‘skid mark,’ the ‘inside of the squash,’ was ‘dark and stringy looking.’ The distance from the boxes of squashes to the place where the plaintiff fell was about ‘one * * * foot or a little more.’ In these boxes there were some whole squashes and different sized pieces of cut squash, and ‘as you looked at the boxes you could see the seeds and all the other insides of the squash.’ There were ‘shells or seeds from squash [on the floor] * * * the stringy section and the spongy section.’ It was The The mound was about one-half inch in thickness, ‘something like a pancake.’
The jury found for the plaintiff in each case, but under reserved leave the judge entered a verdict in each case for the defendant, to which action the plaintiffs duly excepted. We are of opinion that this action of the judge was erroneous.
The principles governing the duty of the defendant to those entering its store for the purpose of purchasing...
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...e.g., Connair v. J. H. Beattie Co., 298 Mass. 550, 11 N.E.2d 499 (brown wax beans and black strawberries), and Berube v. Economy Grocery Stores Corp., 315 Mass. 89, 51 N.E.2d 777 (dirty, black squash). But in still other cases the inference of negligence was not permissible despite the fact......
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...v. J.H. Beattie Co, 298 Mass. 550, 551, 11 N.E.2d 499 (1937) (brown wax beans and dirty strawberries); Berube v. Economy Grocery Stores Corp., 315 Mass. 89, 92, 51 N.E.2d 777 (1943) (grimy, black squash). The fact that it lay near a stockroom door does not support an inference that "the def......
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...that it had been present for a period of time sufficient to charge the defendant with notice. Those cases (Berube v. Economy Grocery Stores Corp., 315 Mass. 89, 51 N.E.2d 777 (1943); Morris v. King Cole Stores, Inc., 132 Conn. 489, 45 A.2d 710 (1946); Vaughn v. National Tea Co., 328 F.2d 12......
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