Flatley v. Garage
| Citation | 194 N.W. 180,196 Iowa 82 |
| Decision Date | 22 June 1923 |
| Docket Number | 35150 |
| Parties | MARGARET I. FLATLEY, Appellee, v. ACME GARAGE et al., Appellants |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Iowa |
Appeal from Polk District Court.--JOSEPH E. MEYER, Judge.
ACTION to recover damages for personal injury. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $ 500. Defendants appeal. Facts appear in the opinion.--Reversed and remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Miller Kelly, Shuttleworth & McManus, for appellants.
C. S Missildine, for appellee.
Appellants Ben Woolgar and William Flatley were operating a garage, known as the Acme Garage, located on Sixth Street, between East Walnut and East Locust Streets, in the city of Des Moines. The building in which the garage was located was owned by the Iowa Investment Company. The building was 66 feet wide and 150 feet long. Opening on the street was a main entrance, 12 feet wide and 13 feet high, where cars were driven in and out. There was another small door in the front of the building entering the office, which was closed at the time in question. On either side of the main entrance there were guard rails. Said guard rails were installed by the owners of the building, the Iowa Investment Company, after appellants had occupied the building for some time, on the owner's initiative, and not at the request of the tenants. The guard rails were evidently for the purpose of protecting the door jambs. The guard rails were railroad irons, 28 inches long and 4 inches wide. They were imbedded in the cement floor at the lower ends. At the tops, the guard rails fitted into the door jambs, and leaned against the walls of the building. The distances at the floor between the door jambs and the inner edges of the guard rails were ten inches. Thus the guard rails formed hypothenuses of triangles. We insert a photograph which will be helpful in understanding the physical situation involved in this case.
Appellee and her family were residents of Illinois. At the time in question, she and her husband, Edward G. Flatley, and a daughter and little son, were in Des Moines, visiting her husband's brother, appellant William Flatley, and his family. Appellee and her children had preceded her husband on the visit to Des Moines. On the evening in question, appellee's husband arrived in Des Moines, and she met him at the depot, and they walked to the garage. The proprietors of the garage, Woolgar and William Flatley, were at the garage, and also Mrs. William Flatley was in an automobile across the street from the garage. William Flatley and his wife, his brother, Edward Flatley, and appellee went in an automobile from the garage to the home of William Flatley. Later in the evening, they all returned to the garage, and parked their automobile along the curb north of the entrance of the garage, where they all got out of the car and went into the garage. After visiting a few minutes with Woolgar and his wife, appellee and her sister and appellee's daughter went out of the garage onto the sidewalk to the south entrance of the garage, and were waiting for William Flatley and Edward Flatley to join them, expecting to go to the grounds of the State Capitol, to view a parade. The children of the Flatleys were playing on the sidewalk, among them the little son of appellee, whose age the record does not disclose. While the parties were standing on the sidewalk on the south side of the driveway, a car was driven into the entrance, and William and Edward Flatley, who had come out of the garage just before the car entered, returned into the garage, and appellee's little boy ran into the entrance of the garage. Appellee started into the entrance, to get the little boy. Appellee testified that she was standing near the south side of the entrance, and turned to go into the entrance of the garage, and that:
[SEE PHOTOGRAPH IN ORIGINAL]
In the accident, the tibia bone of the right leg of appellee was broken.
On the trial, appellants insisted that appellee's fall was not caused by catching her foot in the space between the guard rail and the jamb; that she had not touched the guard rail, but simply fell, without tripping on any obstacle; and that the accident and consequent injury resulted from appellee's own negligence. These are issues which it will not be necessary to consider, in determining the case.
At the close of all the evidence, appellants moved for a directed verdict on several grounds, among which, in substance, were that, at the time of the accident, appellee was at the garage without any solicitation on the part of appellants, and that when so entering the garage at the time of the accident, she...
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