Carpenter v. Herpolsheimer's Co.
| Decision Date | 01 March 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 132.,132. |
| Citation | 271 N.W. 575,278 Mich. 697 |
| Parties | CARPENTER v. HERPOLSHEIMER'S CO. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Action for personal injuries by Laura Carpenter against Herpolsheimer's Company. From a judgment on a directed verdict for defendant, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Kent County; Willis B. Perkins, judge.
Argued before the Entire Bench.
Glocheski & Glocheski, of Grand Rapids, for appellant.
Clifford A. Mitts, Jr., of Grand Rapids, for appellee.
In action for injuries sustained by plaintiff while she was a customer in defendant's store, defendant had directed verdict.
In the center of an aisle, eight or nine feet wide, defendant had put a table, thirty inches in width, for the display and sale of purses. Empty purse boxes were piled under the tables by clerks and periodically removed. They were piled two rows deep. The boxes were about six inches high, nine wide, and twelve long.
Plaintiff claims that as she was walking beside the table in a crowd of people she stepped into a box in the middle of the aisle, which ‘looked like a box that possibly they had large purses in,’ she tried to kick it off her foot and fell. She said that as she sat on the floor she saw that the boxes under the table were piled up all right and were not protruding.
The merchandise manager, who was close by when plaintiff fell, said the boxes were piled in a single row, double height, and one was slightly protruding from the table and looked as if it had been stepped on.
It is the duty of a storekeeper to provide reasonably safe aisles for the customers. Brown v. Stevens, 136 Mich. 311, 99 N.W. 12. The proprietor is liable for injury resulting from an unsafe condition caused by the active negligence of himself and his employees, Wine v. Newcombe, Endicott & Co., 203 Mich. 445, 169 N.W. 832; and he is liable when the unsafe condition otherwise caused is known to the storekeeper or is of such a character or has existed a sufficient length of time that he should have knowledge of it, Yarington v. Huck, 218 Mich. 100, 187 N.W. 298.
The difficulty with plaintiff's case is that there was no evidence that the box which she claims was in the aisle and tripped her was a purse box; nor, if it was, that it had been piled negligently under the table; nor how it got into the aisle; nor that defendant had knowledge of its being there; nor that it was in the aisle long enough so defendant should have known of it. Fuller v....
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Berryman v. K Mart Corp.
...had knowledge of it." [Serinto v. Borman Food Stores, 380 Mich. 637, 640-641, 158 N.W.2d 485 (1968), quoting Carpenter v. Herpolsheimer's Co., 278 Mich. 697, 271 N.W. 575 (1937); emphasis deleted.] See also Andrews v. K mart Corp., 181 Mich.App. 666, 670-671, 450 N.W.2d 27 (1989); McCune v.......
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Jaworski v. Great Scott Supermarkets, Inc.
...or has existed a sufficient length of time that he should have knowledge of it." (Citations omitted.) Carpenter v. Herpolsheimer's Co., 278 Mich. 697, 698, 271 N.W. 575, (1937). In the instant case, the trial court gave the following instruction regarding defendant's duty of care to provide......
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Schafer v. Hotel Martin Co.
...Co., 302 Mass. 544, 20 N.E.2d 409, 410; Molarelli v. Hayes-Bickford Lunch System, 320 Mass. 763, 70 N.E.2d 801; Carpenter v. Herpolsheimer's Co., 278 Mich. 697, 271 N.W. 575; Filipowicz v. S. S. Kresge Co., 281 Mich. 90, 274 N.W. 721, 723; Gaffron v. Prudential Life Ins. Co., 238 Mo.App. 74......
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Bara v. Trimac Transp. E., Inc.
...of the unsafe condition. See Clark v. Kmart Corp., 465 Mich. 416, 419, 634 N.W.2d 347, 348-49 (2001) (quoting Carpenter v. Herpolsheimer's Co., 278 Mich. 697, 271 N.W. 575 (1937)). Given the facts of a given case, the Michigan Supreme Court has also found that actual or constructive notice ......