Graves v. Massey, 40152
| Decision Date | 07 May 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 40152,40152 |
| Citation | 227 Miss. 848,87 So.2d 270 |
| Parties | M. A. GRAVES v. R. D. MASSEY et al. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Howard R. Pigford, Lester F. Williamson, Meridian, for appellant.
M. V. B. Miller, Gerald Adams, O. Winston Cameron, Meridian, for appellees.
The plaintiff, M. A. Graves, sued the Phillips Petroleum Company, a seller of petroleum products at wholesale, L. B. Paine, d.b.a. L. B. Paine Oil Company, Inc., a distributor of petroleum products, and R. D. Massey, the operator of a filling station in the City of Meridian, for damages on account of personal injuries sustained when he tripped and fell over the handle of a hydraulic jack used at the filling station for jacking up automobiles when repairing flat tires.
The accident occurred on the premises where the defendant R. D. Massey was operating the filling station, and about six feet from the sidewalk. The handle of the hydraulic jack extended out about five feet from under the taxicab which had been jacked up by an attendant for the purpose of repairing a rear tire.
The plaintiff testified that he went to the filling station for the purpose of seeing a Mr. Vick, an employee there, to whom he had sold 'a '41 Chevrolet', and the purpose of his visit to see Mr. Vick was to get his full address in order that he might have the title of the Chevrolet transferred into Vick's name at the sheriff's office. There is no intimation in the testimony that he intended to transact and business with the filling station. People were accustomed to walk through the driveway at the filling station from one street to another near an intersection, and the plaintiff had left the sidewalk to cross the driveway of the filling station for the purpose of going into the office thereof in looking for Mr. Vick. He said 'I noticed a car there, but I never thought about looking down, and before I knew it I hit the concrete.'
The trial court granted a directed verdict in favor of all of the defendants at the conclusion of the testimony on behalf of the plaintiff. In view of the conclusion that we have reached, it is unnecessary that we consider the relation between the L. B. Paine Oil Company and R. D. Massey or the relation between them and the Phillips Petroleum Company. The testimony is wholly undisputed that the plaintiff went to the filling station on a personal mission of his own. He did not go at the instance of the operator of the station nor for the purpose of transacting any business with the filling station. The fact that cold drinks, nabs, cookies, cigarettes and other sundries were sold at the filling station, does not alter the fact that on this occasion the plaintiff was a mere licensee on the premises and not an invitee for the purpose of making any purchase or transacting any other business with the filling station on that occasion. Nor does he say that he intended to do so. Being a mere licensee, neither of the defendants who are appellees on this appeal owed him any duty except not to willfully or wantonly injure him. No appeal was taken from the directed verdict in favor of the defendant Phillips Petroleum Company.
It is argued that there were other spaces in the filling station area where the taxicab could have been parked while the flat tire thereon was...
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Coleman v. Associated Pipeline Contractors, Inc.
...Investment Co. v. Conner, 1963, 246 Miss. 343, 149 So.2d 312, 315-318, and Mayor of Vicksburg v. McLain, supra, with Graves v. Massey, 1956, 227 Miss. 848, 87 So.2d 270, 271, and Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Tisdale, Miss.1966, 185 So.2d 916. See also Lepnick v. Gaddis, 1894, 72 Miss. 200, 16 So......
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Adams By and Through Adams v. Fred's Dollar Store of Batesville
...but where the facts are not in dispute the classification becomes a question of law for the trial judge. Graves v. Massey, 227 Miss. 848, 853, 87 So.2d 270, 271 (1956). See also Hoffman, 358 So.2d 1008; Langford v. Mercurio, 254 Miss. 788, 805-06, 183 So.2d 150, 157-158 (1966). The Florida ......
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Langford v. Mercurio
...v. McWilliams Realty Corp., 246 Miss. 568, 151 So.2d 596 (1963); Dry v. Ford, 238 Miss. 98, 117 So.2d 456 (1960); Graves v. Massey, 227 Miss. 848, 87 So.2d 270 (1956); Kelley v. Sportsmen's Speedway, Inc., 224 Miss. 632, 80 So.2d 785 (1955); 38 Am.Jur. Negligence Sec. 109 The record establi......
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Leffler v. Sharp, No. 2003-CA-00378-SCT.
...of law for the trial judge. Adams v. Fred's Dollar Store of Batesville, 497 So.2d 1097, 1100 (Miss.1986) (citing Graves v. Massey, 227 Miss. 848, 853, 87 So.2d 270, 271 (1956)). ¶ 11. As to the first step, determination of the injured party's status, this Court has held that "[a]s to status......