Cory v. Ray

• Decision Date: 25 May 1944
• Docket Number: 17253.
• Citation: 55 N.E.2d 117,115 Ind.App. 50
• Parties: CORY v. RAY et al.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

55 N.E.2d 117

115 Ind.App. 50

CORY v. RAY et al.

No. 17253.

Appellate Court of Indiana, in Banc.

May 25, 1944

Herman L. Ridenour, of Indianapolis, for appellant.

Slaymaker Merrell Locke & Reynolds and William Z. Zilson, both of Indianapolis, for appellees.

DRAPER Presiding Judge.

Action by appellant to recover damages for personal injuries. At the conclusion of all the evidence the court, on appellee's motion, directed a verdict in their favor. The correctness of this ruling is the only question presented.

The evidence most favorable to appellant follows the allegations of her complaint and discloses that appellees owned or leased certain property where they operated, for profit, a game of chance called bingo. It was a large, one-story frame building reached by a drive constructed of level, smooth crushed stone which extended to the entrance to the building, which entrance was variously estimated at twenty-five to fifty feet in width. The floor of the building was about four inches higher than the drive and was constructed of cement, so that the floor and drive were of about the same color and at night were scarcely distinguishable from each other. The hall was more brilliantly lighted than the outside, so that a crowd standing or moving in the entrance cast a shadow over the step-up into the building.

On the night in question the appellant, a woman sixty-six years of age and admittedly a bingo fan, but who had never played there before, was invited there to play, and she was transported to and from the place in one of the busses which were furnished free of charge for that purpose by the management. There were from seven hundred to one thousand players there that night. The appellant played until about 11:30 when it was announced that the last, or one of the last, of the busses was leaving for town, whereupon she arose and made her way to the entrance, intending to take the bus. The same idea apparently occurred to many of the others, for when she reached the entrance outside of which the bus was waiting, some two or three hundred of them were surging pushing and showing 'like cattle' in an effort all to leave the building at the same time. She remembered the step-up and stopped in an effort to locate it, but because of the shallowness of the step, the lighting arrangement and the coloring, the floor and driveway looked level, and before she could find the step-up she was pushed and shoved from behind, which caused her to fall over the step and onto the driveway, thus causing the injuries complained of. The appellees made no effort to control or manage the crowd. It was not unusual for such large crowds to attend at the gaming.

We are called upon to determine 'whether the evidentiary facts would have reasonably supported inferences of sufficient ultimate facts...