Franklin v. Salminen

• Decision Date: 01 August 1966
• Citation: 222 A.2d 261
• Parties: Mamie FRANKLIN, individually and as Executrix of the Estate of Sherley E. Franklin, Plaintiff Below, Appellant, v. Maria V. SALMINEN, Defendant Below, Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 261

222 A.2d 261

Mamie FRANKLIN, individually and as Executrix of the Estate

of Sherley E. Franklin, Plaintiff Below, Appellant, v. Maria V. SALMINEN, Defendant Below, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Aug. 1, 1966.

William D. Bailey, Jr., of Bayard, Brill, Russell & Handelman, Wilmington, for appellant.

Richard I. G. Jones, of Prickett & Prickett, Wilmington, for appellee.

WOLCOTT, Chief Justice, CAREY, Justice, and SHORT, Vice Chancellor, sitting.

WOLCOTT, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from the Superior Court in a personal injury action from a judgment for the defendant entered on the jury's verdict.

Defendant operates an egg farm. Plaintiff purchases eggs for her restaurant from the defendant.

On the defendant's farm is an egg house to which each day are brought the eggs collected on the farm. In the egg house the eggs are then cleaned in washing tubs, graded and sorted. During this process, broken eggs and dirt from the eggs are spilled on the cement floor of the egg house. After the egg-cleaning process is completed, the defendant washes down the cement floor of the egg house with a hose and broom. Thereafter the eggs are stacked along the walls of the egg house.

On the day on which the injury to the plaintiff took place, the defendant had completed washing down the egg house floor when the plaintiff came to her farm to purchase eggs. She and the defendant went into the egg house and plaintiff placed an order for eggs. Plaintiff at this time noticed the egg house floor was wet. Plaintiff, prior to this time, had been in the egg house numerous times and had noticed that the floor was oftentimes wet.

Plaintiff and defendant carried out a portion of plaintiff's order to her car. Plaintiff then went back into the egg house for the balance of her order when she slipped and fell, breaking her hip.

There was no evidence that there was any foreign substance or thing on the floor which might have caused the plaintiff to slip. The evidence was that the cement floor had no defects at the time, but that it had water upon it. This was observed by the plaintiff.

In this appeal plaintiff argues that the trial judge committed error in instructing the jury. Specifically, plaintiff says the refusal of the trial judge to instruct on the basis of Howard v. Food Fair, Inc., Del., 201 A.2d 638, was prejudicial error.

In the Howard case we held that a customer in a store has the right to assume that the floor is safe to walk upon and is free from obstacles. We further held that a customer walking along an aisle lined with shelves displaying merchandise is excused from keeping a constant lookout to observe a dangerous condition on the floor. The plaintiff in the Howard case fell while walking along one of the aisles of the store when she slipped upon a greasy substance on the floor which she had not noticed.

Plaintiff drafted a requested instruction patterned upon our language in the Howard case. The requested instruction was based upon the theory that defendant's egg house was similar to a store because defendant had eggs stacked along the walls and occasionally took customers in for purchases.

We think, however, the requested instruction was properly refused. In the first place, the defendant's egg house, we think, was not a store--at least, not a store in the sense of a Food Fair supermarket. Secondly, crates or cartons of eggs stacked along the walls are not comparable to a display of varied merchandise in shelves designed to attract the customer's eye.

Of more importance, however, to distinguish ...