Clark v. Linwood Hotel, Inc.
| Decision Date | 14 May 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 44860,No. 1,44860,1 |
| Citation | 291 S.W.2d 102,365 Mo. 982 |
| Parties | Rae A. CLARK and Reba Wilson, Administratrices of the Estate of Thenia D. Allen, Deceased, Respondents, v. LINWOOD HOTEL, Inc., Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Clyde J. Linde, Robert B. Langworthy, Billy S. Sparks, Kansas City, for appellant. Langworthy, Matz & Linde, Kansas City, of counsel.
A. E. Margolin, F. Philip Kirwan, Harold H. Croghan, Kansas City, for respondents. Margolin & Kirwan, Kansas City, of counsel.
Mrs. Thenia D. Allen was injured as she attempted to alight from an automatically operated passenger elevator maintained by defendant in its apartment hotel. Her petition, predicated on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, alleged that as a direct result of negligence of defendant the elevator suddenly moved upward as she attempted to leave it, which caused her to fall and sustain grave personal injuries, for which she asked damages in the sum of $50,000. Prior to trial, Mrs. Allen died of a cause not attributable to her injuries. Two of her daughters, Rae A. Clark and Reba Wilson, were appointed as co-administratrices of her estate and as such, upon motion, were substituted in her stead. Upon trial, the jury returned a verdict for defendant. Plaintiffs' motion for new trial was sustained on the ground the trial court had erred in giving defendant's Instruction No. 6, submitting an issue of Mrs. Allen's contributory negligence. Defendant has appealed from that order as being erroneous and also asserts that Mrs. Allen's injuries 'occurred notwithstanding the exercise of due care by defendant and res ipsa loquitur does not apply'.
The Cornell Hotel, operated by defendant, has six floors and is equipped with the passenger elevator in question. Mrs. Allen resided on the fourth floor and had been a resident tenant of the hotel about twelve years. The elevator had been manually operated until 1947, at which time it was converted to an automatic or semi-automatic type by the defendant owner. The power machinery that controls the hoisting, lowering and stopping of the cage is in a penthouse atop the hotel. The cables from which the cage is suspended are not within the view of passengers. An interlocking system, consisting of seven interlocks, performs an important function in the elevator's operation. One of these interlocks is in the cage and one is at the door of each of the six floors. Each of these is enclosed in a box or cover. All of the aforesaid equipment is in the exclusive control of defendant. The elevator has no levelling equipment and does not always stop exactly at floor level; it may stop two or three inches above or below the floor. Mrs. Allen operated it frequently after the change-over. She knew it was electrically operated by the use of push buttons and the extent to which it usually functioned when operated by such buttons, but was otherwise totally ignorant of its mechanism. The elevator is inspected monthly by the Rafiner Elevator Works. A regular inspection had been made on the morning of the lay on which Mrs. Allen was later injured. The report made on this inspection showed the elevator to be in good condition. It was again inspected by the same inspection service on that day and within an hour after Mrs. Allen was injured and again reported in good condition. The inspectors who made the foregoing reports testified as to the extent of their respective examinations; that their reports correctly stated the result of their inspections; and that the elevator would not operate with the doors open, either before or after Mrs. Allen was injured.
Mrs. Allen's deposition was read in evidence by plaintiffs. She testified: To go by elevator from the fourth floor to the first floor, a button is pushed; the elevator comes to the fourth floor; the outside door is pushed open by the passenger, who then pushes open an inside lattice door (affixed to the cage) and enters. Both doors are closed and a button in the cage is pushed for the floor desired. The elevator moves automatically to the first floor. When it reaches the first floor, the passenger pulls the lattice door open and then pulls open the outside door. On all of the floors except the first floor, both doors close when released. On the first floor the outside door can be pushed back until it catches and holds, stays open.
At about one o'clock, p. m., on the day she was injured, Mrs. Allen was advised there was a package for her at the desk on the first floor. * * *'
When asked if she could remember with any particularity just what happened prior to the time the elevator lurched, she answered: She knew that it did not always stop level with the floor.
In response to a question as to whether or not the stop which the elevator made at the first floor appeared to her to be normal, she stated: 'Well, truthfully speaking, you give it so little consideration about anything being unusual, you get in the elevator, ride to the floor, it stops; you make the necessary procedure to hold back your doors and step out, all of which was correct and just as I was ready to step out, that elevator jumped--there is no question about that, it did it for some reason that I wouldn't know.'
A duly qualified expert, in response to a hypothetical question propounded by plaintiffs' counsel, in which he outlined the mechanical structure and method of operation of the elevator as described by defendant's witnesses, stated that in his opinion 'it would be possible for this elevator to lurch or jump six or eight inches with both the elevator car gate and the lobby door open.'
The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur applies only 'when (a) the...
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Fellows v. Farmer
... ... Palmer, Mo., 309 S.W.2d 561, 564(2), 66 A.L.R.2d 1242; Clark v. Linwood Hotel, 365 Mo. 982, 986, 291 S.W.2d 102, 104(1); Warner v ... ...
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Bass v. Nooney Co., 63926
... ... This doctrine has frequently been applied in elevator cases. Clark v. Linwood Hotel, 365 Mo. 982, 291 S.W.2d 102 (1956); Warner v. Terminal ... 831, 616 P.2d 813 (banc 1980); Culbert v. Sampson's Supermarkets Inc., 444 A.2d 433 (Me.1982). Also from a purely practical point of view, it ... ...
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... ... Goodman dba Santa Rita Hotel", Appellee ... Supreme Court of Arizona ... Dec. 16, 1959 ... \xC2" ... 60, 64, 68 P.2d 952, 954; Sawyer v. People's Freight Lines, Inc., 42 Ariz. 145, 22 P.2d 1080. The doctrine, therefore, if applicable, ... 925, 52 L.R.A. 922) and to elevators that lurch upwards (Clark v. Linwood Hotel, 365 Mo. 982, 291 S.W.2d 102), and we consider it ... ...
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