C. R. Anthony Co. v. Million

• Decision Date: 14 November 1967
• Docket Number: No. 40946,40946
• Citation: 435 P.2d 116
• Parties: C. R. ANTHONY COMPANY, a Corporation, Plaintiff in Error, v. Brenda MILLION, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 116

435 P.2d 116

1967 OK 231

C. R. ANTHONY COMPANY, a Corporation, Plaintiff in Error, v. Brenda MILLION, Defendant in Error.

No. 40946.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

Nov. 14, 1967.

Syllabus by the Court

The invitee assumes all normal or ordinary risks attendant upon the use of the premises, and the owner or occupant is under no legal duty to reconstruct or alter the premises so as to obviate known and obvious dangers, nor is he liable for injury to an invitee resulting from a danger which was obvious or should have been observed in the exercise of ordinary care.

Appeal from the District Court of Jackson County; Weldon Ferris, Judge.

Action for damages for personal injuries incurred in colliding with a store's awning. After verdict and judgment for plaintiff, and the overruling of defendant's motion for a new trial, the defendant appealed. Reversed and remanded with directions.

Robert B. Harbison, Altus, for plaintiff in error.

Hal L. Grider, Grider & Worrell, Altus, for defendant in error.

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

Defendant in error, as plaintiff, obtained a verdict and judgment from plaintiff in error, as defendant, for damages for personal injuries she allegedly suffered when she bumped her head on the bottom edge of a canvas awning in front of defendant's store.

Although other alleged errors are assigned in defendant's petition in error, the only one argued in its brief is the trial court's alleged error in overruling its challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence. It is defendant's position that the court erred in submitting the case to the jury, because the evidence failed to show any 'actionable negligence' on its part.

When plaintiff bumped her head on the awning, she had been in defendant's store as a customer and had just walked out of the store's front door and across the sidewalk in front of it.

At the time of the accident, plaintiff had been employed continuously a little more than two weeks at another store in the same row of stores as defendant's store. This row of stores faces west, and all have glass fronts. A roof extended over the sidewalk in front of defendant's store and at least one other store in that row. The sidewalk in front of defendant's store was estimated by one witness to be twelve feet wide, from the store's front door and wall, to the curb. The roof over the sidewalk is supported by a row of upright steel posts at, or near, the curb line; and the awning, which hangs vertically parallel with, and just in front of, this row of posts, from the ceiling under the roof, straight down toward the sidewalk, can be lowered to within about five feet of the sidewalk's surface, or left hanging at a higher level, by the use of cords, or ropes, and pulleys suspended from said ceiling. The bottom of the awning incloses a metal pole, or length of metal pipe, extending horizontally and acting as a weight and roller, which causes the awning to drop when its cords, or ropes, are released. This metal roller was the hard object at the bottom of the awning, on which plaintiff bumped her head, while attempting to walk under the awning, to go to her father's automobile, from the store's front door. At that time, which was between 5:00 and 5:30 P.M., the awning had been lowered to its five-foot level to protect the merchandise in defendant's store's front windows from the fading effect of the late afternoon sun's rays. And, it was the sun's rays, shining in her face, under the bottom of the awning, or reflecting off of the cars and pavement in the parking area in front of the store, which plaintiff testified blinded her so that she misjudged the height of the awning's bottom edge, and attempted to walk under it, without stooping, or lowering her head.

The impact of her head in striking the awning's lower edge and roller caused her to fall to the sidewalk. Later, the same day, she went to the hospital for examination and treatment.

Defendant readily recognizes that plaintiff was a business invitee of its store, but urges that the evidence's insufficiency to show any actionable negligence on its part, is clear under the rule announced in Safeway Stores, Inc. v. McCoy, Okl., 376 P.2d 285, as follows:

'The invitee assumes all normal or ordinary risks attendant upon the use of the premises, and the owner or occupant is under no legal duty to reconstruct or alter the premises so as to obviate known and obvious dangers, nor is he liable for injury to an invitee resulting from A danger which was obvious or should have been observed in the exercise of ordinary care.' (Emphasis added).

In connection with its insistence that the evidence in this case shows no breach, on its part, of any duty of care owed plaintiff under the above quoted rule, defendant calls our attention to the evidence indicating that plaintiff was familiar with the awning on defendant's store (similar to the one...