Golden v. Katz
| Decision Date | 18 January 1943 |
| Docket Number | 17578. |
| Citation | 11 So.2d 412 |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
| Parties | GOLDEN v. KATZ. |
Appeal from First City Court of New Orleans; W.V. Seeber Judge.
Weiss & Weiss, of New Orleans, for appellant.
J.J Jackson, of New Orleans, for appellee.
Katz Realty Company, Inc., is the owner of a two-story apartment dwelling in the city of New Orleans, bearing municipal number 520 Saratoga street. Prior to March 24, 1940, the upper apartment of the building was rented by the defendant, Ralph Katz, the president of the corporation, to a colored man named Marshall Lee Grant. The latter sub-leased a portion of the apartment to his son-in-law, Elliot Golden, plaintiff in this case. On March 24, 1940, the three year old infant child of Golden while traversing the stairway leading from the apartment to the ground floor, fell down the stairs and suffered physical injuries. Thereafter Golden instituted this suit against Katz in the First City Court for $300 damages, $100 of which is claimed for his own mental anguish because of the injury to his child and $200 for the physical pain and suffering of the minor.
The suit is founded on the theory that Katz was guilty of negligence in that he failed to protect the stairway leading from the lower to the upper apartment, where plaintiff lived, with a railing or bannister and that it was the absence of such bannister which caused his child to fall and sustain the alleged injuries. Golden further averred that, at the time he and his family moved into the premises of the defendant, the balustrade or bannister was missing from the stairway; that he, at that time and many times since, requested the defendant to provide such a safeguard and that notwithstanding the fact that the latter promised to install it, he negligently failed to do so.
The defendant Katz denied any liability to plaintiff for the consequences of the accident. He asserted in his answer that there was never at any time a railing or bannister on the edge of the stairway leading to the apartment occupied by the plaintiff; that he made no promise to install one at the time he rented the apartment to plaintiff's father-in-law, nor at any time thereafter; that plaintiff's father-in-law accepted the property as it was, and specifically agreed that, if there was any defect in the premises, he would assume all responsibility for damages claimed by any sub-lessee or occupant of the premises in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 174 of 1932.
On the trial of the case, it was brought out that the property was owned by Katz Realty Company, Inc., and not by the defendant, Ralph Katz, and a stipulation was entered into substituting the former as the defendant in the place and stead of Katz. After hearing the evidence submitted by the parties, the trial judge granted judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against Katz Realty Company, Inc., for the sum of $100. Wherefore, this appeal.
A perusal of the record reveals that, while there is no doubt that the infant child of the plaintiff fell and sustained injuries somewhere within the apartment building, the testimony in the case is most vague and indefinite, with respect to the place where the infant fell and as to the cause of the fall. In view of this, it becomes necessary to examine the evidence in order to determine whether the trial judge reached the correct conclusion.
The undisputed facts show that the grandfather of the child, Marshall Lee Grant, rented the upstairs apartment of the building from Katz by verbal lease from month to month. This apartment consists of four rooms, two in the front, which are separated by a hall and a small stairway leading to the other two rooms in the rear. The hall also leads to a staircase containng 21 steps, which provides an entrance to and exit from the apartment. These stairs are embedded into the wall of the building on one side but have no railing or bannister on the other side. It is plaintiff's claim that the child fell off the open side of these stairs.
Grant, the tenant, testified that he leased the apartment from Katz and that he subleased a part of it to his son-in-law (the plaintiff) and his daughter, who occupied it with him. He further states that, at the time he rented the apartment and thereafter, Katz promised to install a railing on the stairway leading to the apartment but...
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Smolinski v. Taulli
...821 (1971). In holding to the contrary, the intermediate court relied upon its predecessor court's prior decisions in Golden v. Katz, 11 So.2d 412 (La.App.Orl.1943) and Guidry v. Hamlin, 188 So. 662 (La.App., 1939). These decisions denied recovery to parents of children who allegedly fell f......
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Hanson v. Luft
...F.Supp. 727, 732; affd. sub nom. Jones v. United States, 4 Cir., 241 F.2d 26, 29-30; Reek v. Lutz, R.I., 158 A.2d 145, 147; Golden v. Katz (La.App.) 11 So.2d 412, 415; Guidry v. Hamlin (La.App.) 188 So. 662, 665; Schiavone v. Falango, 149 Conn. 293, 179 A.2d 622, 625-626.) The parents of th......
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Smolinski v. Taulli, 4640
...His duty is no higher to small children than to any other tenant. Guidry v. Hamlin, 188 So. 662 (La.App. Orl., 1939); Golden v. Katz, 11 So.2d 412 (La.App. Orl., 1943); See also: Browne v. Rosenfield's, Inc., 42 So.2d 885 (La.App.1st Cir., 1949); Sullivan v. Birmingham Fire Insurance Co. of......
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Sullivan v. Birmingham Fire Ins. Co. of Pa., 2154
...to foresee that the parents will not protect their very young children against such dangers.' To the same general effect see Golden v. Katz, La.App., 11 So.2d 412. See Browne v. Rosenfield's, Inc., La.App., 42 So.2d 885 wherein it was said: '* * * Strangers are not liable to children for ne......