Chenoweth v. Flynn

Decision Date17 November 1959
Docket NumberNo. 49808,49808
Citation99 N.W.2d 310,251 Iowa 11
PartiesLoretta R. CHENOWETH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Edward W. FLYNN, Louis C. Kurtz, Jr. and John L. Flynn, Trustees of the Martin Flynn Estate, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtIowa Supreme Court

Holliday, Miller, Myers & Stewart, by Joseph B. Joyce, Des Moines, for appellant.

Irish & Haughey, Des Moines for appellees.

HAYS, Justice.

Plaintiff, alleging defendants were negligent in installing and maintaining in its lobby a floor covering so constructed that it would catch the shoe of a person rightly passing over it and suddenly trip and throw such person, seeks damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained when the heel of her shoe caught in a floor mat causing her to stumble. Defendants obtained a directed verdict and plaintiff appeals. On this appeal the record is viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff. Miller v. White Bronze Monument Co., 141 Iowa 701, 118 N.W. 518; Wood v. Tri-States Theater Corp., 237 Iowa 799, 23 N.W.2d 843.

Defendants own and operate the Flynn Building located at Seventh and Locust Streets in Des Moines, Iowa. For servicing various offices located in this six-story building, elevators are maintained. They are located at the east end of a lobby, entrance to which is from Seventh Street on the west. From this entrance to the elevators is a distance of twenty-three feet seven inches. During the winter season, as is the custom in many office buildings in Des Moines, floor mats were placed on the floor approaching the elevators to assist in removing ice and snow from the shoes of people using the elevators. In January 1957, new mats were installed. They were of corded rubber construction and were ten-sixteenth of an inch thick. Around the outside or edge was a bevel or nose which eliminated any abrupt rise from the floor. Between the cords, which ran lengthwise and crosswise, were holes or crevices one half inch wide. The mat, built in three sections but fastened into a continuous one, was sixteen feet one inch long and extended from about five feet east of the entrance east to within two feet four inches of the elevator. With one exception, this mat differs from other mats, made by the same party, used in buildings in Des Moines in three respects. It is of corded rubber, the others, of pure gum rubber; it is ten-sixteenth of an inch high, the others, seven-sixteenths; it, like the others, has holes or crevices one half-inch wide, but in length they are one-quarter of an inch longer than the others.

The plaintiff was an employee in an office located in the building and is conceded to have the status of an invitee. On the morning of February 13, 1957, she entered the lobby from Seventh Street. To quote her testimony: 'As I entered the swinging door of the building on the date in question, I was looking directly ahead. The elevator door was open. And as I went in there I just got one foot on the mat and it threw me into the elevator. The mat took my shoe off. My shoe caught in the mat and it threw me. It was the left shoe that was caught, the heel, pulling it completely off my foot. * * * I didn't fall down on the floor, I lunged. It was about three times, to keep from falling.' She had been using the mat daily since it was installed without difficulty. She was wearing a medium high heeled shoe, the heel being about two and a quarter inches high with about a half-inch tip.

The elevator operator testified she saw plaintiff catch her heel in the mat and lunge forward. She also stated that within three weeks prior to the accident people would catch their heels in the mats but not fall. That in conversation with a Mr. Condon, building maintenance man, she told him people were catching their heels in the mats but that nothing was done about it. The record shows these mats were used the rest of that winter and the one following.

While the motion to direct a verdict contained numerous grounds, it was sustained upon the ground that plaintiff had failed to establish any primary negligence on the part of the defendants, which ruling is assigned as error.

I. The law applicable here appears to be well settled. The possessor of real estate is not an insurer of invitees who come upon his property, nor does the mere fact that an accident happened, of itself, create liability. His duty is that of reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition for the contemplated use. Primus v. Bellevue Apartments, 241 Iowa 1055, 44 N.W.2d 347, 25 A.L.R.2d 565; Reuter v. Iowa T. & S. Bank, 244 Iowa 939, 57 N.W.2d 225. This duty applies only to defects or conditions which are in the nature of dangers, traps, snares, pitfalls, and the like, which are not obvious or known to the invitee but which are, or in the exercise of due care should be known to the possessor. It is predicated upon a superior knowledge. Atherton v. Hoenig's Grocery, 249 Iowa 50, 86 N.W.2d 252, and authorities therein cited.

II. Examining the facts before us in the light of the established legal principles, we think the plaintiff establish a prima facie case sufficient to generate a jury question upon this issue of primary negligence. The record shows that plaintiff was wearing a shoe with, what might be called or at least she so describes it, a moderate heel such as is generally being worn. During a period of three weeks prior to the accident, which was the time the mat had been in use, people were catching their heels therein, which fact was made known to the defendants through knowledge of their maintenance man and nothing was done regarding them. These facts, we think, present a question for the jury, not whether the mats were safe, but whether or not, in using them, defendants exercised reasonable care to keep the premises safe for their contemplated use. Parsons v. H. L. Green Co., 233 Iowa 648, 10 N.W.2d 40; Schafer v. Hotel Martin Co., 249 Iowa 866, 89 N.W.2d 373. On the answer to this question reasonable minds might well differ and it should be determined by a jury, although we concede that it is a close question. Wood v. Tri-States Theater Corp., cited and relied upon by the appellant presents a much stronger factual situation than does the instant one.

III. The motion for a directed verdict contained the allegation that plaintiff had failed...

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41 cases
  • Adams v. Deur
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • December 9, 1969
    ...and it is sufficient if the injuries are the natural, though not necessary or inevitable, result of the wrong. Chenoweth v. Flynn, 251 Iowa 11, 16, 99 N.W.2d 310, 313; Christianson v. Kramer, 255 Iowa 239, 249, 122 N.W.2d 283, 289, and Furthermore proximate negligence need not be the sole c......
  • Stockdale v. Agrico Chemical Co., Div. of Con. Oil Co.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa
    • March 21, 1972
    ...and improbable in the light of common experience, such negligence would be a remote rather than a proximate cause.' Chenoweth v. Flynn, 251 Iowa 11, 17-18, 99 N.W.2d 310, 314. Restatement, Second, Torts, ? 435(2) `The actor's conduct may be held not to be a legal cause of harm to another wh......
  • Henneman v. McCalla
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • February 7, 1967
    ...the factual situation here presented. We are dealing with one phase of proximate cause. See Annos. 100 A.L.R.2d 944. In Chenoweth v. Flynn, 251 Iowa 11, 16, 99 N.W.2d 310, this court said: 'Proximate cause' is any cause which in natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient int......
  • Frederick v. Goff
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • January 12, 1960
    ...its omission to act would probably result in injury of some kind to some person. (Citations.)' To like effect is Chenoweth v. Flynn, 251 Iowa 11, 99 N.W.2d 310, 313; Gray v. City of Des Moines, 221 Iowa 596, 599, 265 N.W. 612, 613, 104 A.L.R. 1228, 1230; Godbey v. Grinnell E. & H. Co., 190 ......
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