Dees v. Campbell

Decision Date28 February 1966
Docket NumberNo. 43814,43814
Citation183 So.2d 624
PartiesMrs. Louise DEES v. M. E. CAMPBELL, d/b/a Red and White Food Store.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

George M. Simmerman, Pascagoula, for appellant.

Morse & Morse, Gulfport, for appellee.

ETHRIDGE, Chief Justice:

Mrs. Louise Dees, appellant, brought this action in the Circuit Court of Jackson County for the wrongful death of her husband, Wiley Dees. At the close of plaintiff's evidence, the trial court gave a peremptory instruction for M. E. Campbell. Dees fell on the parking lot of defendant's grocery store, and received a brain concussion from which he died. We hold that there was not sufficient circumstantial evidence to make a jury issue on negligence, particularly notice by the proprietor of a slippery condition, and thus we affirm the trial court.

Mr. Dees parked his automobile on the small parking lot of Campbell's Food Store in Ocean Springs, gave his wife some money to buy groceries, and she went in for that purpose. While she was at the check-out counter, she was advised that her husband had fallen. When she got to the car, she found him unconscious, lying flat on his back on the concrete next to the driver's door. Apparently no one saw him fall. He regained consciousness, but died about six hours later.

Plaintiff's evidence indicated that there were places on the concrete parking lot where oil drippings from automobiles had discolored the pavement. There was a dispute in the evidence as to where Mr. Dees fell, and whether the particular area had any oil drippings on it. There was slight evidence that some scattered spots were slippery. There was no evidence to show that the discolored spots had fresh oil on them. Employees of the store swept the lot earlier in the morning before this accident. The evidence, not more than a scintilla, was insufficient to show any failure on the part of the proprietor in his duty to use reasonable care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition under the circumstances. Plaintiff failed to show either that the proprietor had actual notice of a slippery condition, if any, or that the condition existed for such a length of time that in the exercise of ordinary care he should have known it and taken action to remedy it. Annot., 61 A.L.R.2d 6, 13 (1958). In short, the evidence was insufficient to make a jury issue on the question of notice or knowledge of a slippery condition, if it existed, in the parking lot. See Wallace v. J. C. Penney Co.,...

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8 cases
  • Read v. Southern Pine Elec. Power Ass'n
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • November 12, 1987
    ...Res ipsa loquitur, literally translated "the thing speaks for itself," is simply one form of circumstantial evidence. Dees v. Campbell, 183 So.2d 624 (Miss.1986). The doctrine, which is to be applied cautiously, Phillips v. Hull, No. 55,989 (Miss. Dec. 17, 1986), has three (3) elements: 1) ......
  • Rivera v. Adams Homes, LLC
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi
    • July 8, 2014
    ...elements of negligence. Gray v. BellSouth Telecomm., Inc., 11 So. 3d 1269, 1273 (Miss. Ct. App. 2009) (quoting Dees v. Campbell, 183 So. 2d 624, 626 (Miss. 1966)). To rely on circumstantial evidence, "it must be sufficient to make plaintiff's asserted theory reasonably probable, not merely ......
  • Crawford v. Worth
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit
    • August 23, 1971
    ...& M. V. R. R. Co. v. Skaggs, 181 Miss. 150, 179 So. 274 (1938). The doctrine is just one form of circumstantial evidence. Dees v. Campbell, 183 So.2d 624 (Miss.1966). Since plaintiff was not disabled in any demonstrated way from testing the specific physical capabilities of the defendant's ......
  • Galloway v. J. C. Penney Company, 45758
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • May 11, 1970
    ...922 (Miss.1967); Hollie v. Sunflower Stores, Inc., 194 So.2d 217 (Miss.1967); Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Tisdale, supra; Dees v. Campbell, 183 So.2d 624 (Miss.1966); Wallace v. J. C. Penney Co., Inc., 236 Miss. 367, 109 So.2d 876 The Supreme Court of Massachusetts reached the same conclusion i......
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