Grogan v. General Maintenance Service Co.

• Decision Date: 24 May 1985
• Docket Number: Nos. 84-5233,84-5424,s. 84-5233
• Citation: 763 F.2d 444
• Parties: Harold L. GROGAN, et al., Appellants, v. GENERAL MAINTENANCE SERVICE COMPANY, et al. Harold L. GROGAN, et al. v. GENERAL MAINTENANCE SERVICE COMPANY, Quadrangle Development Corporation, et al., Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 444

763 F.2d 444

246 U.S.App.D.C. 154

Harold L. GROGAN, et al., Appellants, v. GENERAL MAINTENANCE SERVICE COMPANY, et al.

Harold L. GROGAN, et al. v. GENERAL MAINTENANCE SERVICE COMPANY, Quadrangle Development

Corporation, et al., Appellants.

Nos. 84-5233, 84-5424.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued March 29, 1985.

Decided May 24, 1985.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action No. 83-01060).

Peter C. DePaolis, Landover, Md., with whom Joseph H. Koonz, Jr., Washington, D.C., Carolyn McKenney and Roger C. Johnson, Landover, Md., were on brief, for appellants Harold L. Grogan, et al. in No. 84-5233.

Edward A. Sheridan, for appellants Quadrangle Development Corp. in No. 84-5424.

D'Ana E. Johnson, Washington, D.C., with whom James C. Gregg and James F. Bromley, Washington, D.C., were on brief, for appellee in Nos. 84-5233 and 84-5424.

Before WALD, MIKVA and STARR, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge STARR.

STARR, Circuit Judge.

In this consolidated case, Harold Grogan and his wife, Crawford Grogan, brought a tort action for damages arising out of Harold's slip and fall accident in a downtown Washington, D.C. office building. The defendants were General Maintenance Service Company (General Maintenance) and appellants Quadrangle Development Corporation, Square 119 Associates, and Square Realty, Inc. (collectively referred to as "Quadrangle"). ¹ Quadrangle, the owner and manager of the building, filed a cross-claim against General Maintenance, which as its name suggests was responsible for cleaning the building. The cross-claim sought indemnity or contribution for all sums that might be awarded to the plaintiffs against Quadrangle.

Prior to trial, the Grogans settled their claim against Quadrangle, leaving General Maintenance as the solitary defendant. The case was tried to a jury, which returned a general verdict in favor of General Maintenance. The Grogans thereupon moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial pursuant to Rules 50(b) and 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. At the same time, Quadrangle moved for a hearing on its cross-claim. The District Court denied both motions in separate orders, from which the Grogans and Quadrangle now appeal. Finding the Grogans' arguments without merit, we affirm the District Court's denial of the motion for judgment n.o.v. or new trial. We find, however, that Quadrangle is entitled to an opportunity to litigate its cross-claim against General Maintenance, to the extent of Quadrangle's contract-based claim against its maintenance contractor. Accordingly, we reverse in part and remand for consideration of that claim.

I

Harold Grogan worked as a sales representative for the Xerox Corporation. Although his office was located in the Rosslyn area of Arlington, Virginia, Mr. Grogan's duties brought him not infrequently to downtown Washington. It was there that the unhappy events which gave rise to this litigation occurred. On September 16, 1981, Mr. Grogan was working at a Xerox demonstration facility located on the mezzanine floor of 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. After completing a demonstration of Xerox products between 5:00 and 5:15 p.m., Mr. Grogan went to use the men's restroom. There he fell to the floor, seriously injuring his back and head. According to the Grogans' complaint, Mr. Grogan slipped on a pool of water on the restroom floor. The complaint further alleged that the floor became wet and slippery as a result of General Maintenance's and Quadrangle's failure to maintain the restroom in a safe condition and to inspect the restrooms adequately to ensure that they were properly maintained.

Because of the nature of the Grogans' appeal, challenging as they do the lack of evidence to support the jury's verdict, it is necessary to recount briefly the testimony adduced at trial. Mr. Grogan testified that he slipped and fell after taking two steps into the restroom. When he regained consciousness, he noticed that his clothes were wet; in a similar vein, two witnesses, Mr. Park and Mr. Sturman, ² testified that they found Mr. Grogan lying in a wet area of the floor. Several mezzanine floor tenants testified that they had frequently observed that water would accumulate on the sink counter and spill onto the floor in front of the sink. ³ The witnesses did not, however, agree on the cause of the water accumulation. Two tenants, Mr. Cox and Mr. Baghdassarian, testified that the faucet fixture leaked. On the other hand, Mr. Sturman and Mr. Park testified that visitors to the restroom would splash water onto the counter as they washed their hands. Indeed, Mr. Sturman testified that on some days more than forty Xerox employees and clients visited the demonstration facility and might have occasion to use the restroom. ⁴ Mr. Sturman also stated that on the day in question the floor's wetness was obvious and apparent to anyone as they entered the restroom. None of the tenants who testified recalled complaining about the problem of wet floors to either General Maintenance or Quadrangle. Similarly, neither General Maintenance's building work crew supervisor nor Quadrangle's assistant building manager recalled receiving any complaints with respect to the restroom.

Mr. Grogan recalled that he had worked at the Pennsylvania Avenue building about two or three times a month over the six months prior to his accident. He testified that on the day of his fall, his demonstration ran late, and he was due at a training session scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at his Rosslyn home office. During cross-examination, Mr. Grogan stated that he did not look down at the floor as he entered the restroom and conceded that the restroom was fully lit. Trial Transcript, Vol. III at 48.

General Maintenance's cleaning contract with Quadrangle provided that General Maintenance would utilize both a day and night crew to clean the building. Testimony revealed that the day porters' duties included a twice-a-day inspection, stocking and cleaning of the building's restrooms. In addition, General Maintenance's employees were contractually required to report to the building's management the existence of leaky faucets, broken fixtures, or other problems or "unusual happenings" in the building. General Maintenance assumed responsibility "for loss or damage caused by [its] employees, and for the conduct of [its] employees." Quadrangle was responsible for the repair of plumbing fixtures and in accordance with this responsibility, a Quadrangle maintenance mechanic had repaired one of the faucets in the restroom two days before Mr. Grogan's accident.

II

Our inquiry in reviewing the trial court's denial of the Grogans' motion for judgment n.o.v. is narrow. ⁵ Our task is to determine whether sufficient evidence was presented at trial to allow the jury reasonably to find for the nonmoving party. As this court has stated, "[t]he jury's verdict must stand unless 'the evidence, together with all inferences that can be reasonably drawn therefrom is so one-sided [in favor of the moving party] that reasonable men could not disagree on the verdict.' " Carter v. Duncan-Huggins, Ltd., 727 F.2d 1225, 1227 (D.C.Cir.) (quoting Coburn v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 711 F.2d 339, 342 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 488, 78 L.Ed.2d 683 (1983)).

In evaluating the jury's verdict, the court is to consider all the evidence and to do so in the light most favorable to the successful party below. Carter, supra, 727 F.2d at 1227. Conflicts in the evidence must be resolved in favor of the prevailing party. Luck v. Baltimore and Ohio R.R. Co., 510 F.2d 663, 664 (D.C.Cir.1975). Furthermore, our task is not to seek to assess, based on a cold record, the credibility of the witnesses nor are we to weigh the evidence, for those are obviously functions reserved for the jury. Carter, supra, 727 F.2d at 1227. Our function is limited to verifying "only that fair-minded jurors could reach the verdict rendered." Ferebee v. Chevron Chemical Co., 736 F.2d 1529, 1534 (D.C.Cir.1984).

Our review of a denial of a motion for new trial is also limited. ⁶ The disposition of such a motion is a matter entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court, Allied Chemical Corp. v. Daiflon, Inc., 449 U.S. 33, 36, 101 S.Ct. 188, 190, 66 L.Ed.2d 193 (1980); in consequence, we review the District Court's denial of a motion for new trial only to determine whether that action constituted an abuse of discretion. Vander Zee v. Karabatsos, 589 F.2d 723, 728 (D.C.Cir.1978), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 962, 99 S.Ct. 2407, 60 L.Ed.2d 1066 (1979). Our review is particularly narrow where, as here, the trial court denied a motion founded upon the contention that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. U.S. Industries, Inc. v. Blake Constr. Co., 671 F.2d 539, 549 (D.C.Cir.1982). In such situations, the appellate court owes deference both to the trial judge and the jury, Hobson v. Wilson, 737 F.2d 1, 58 n. 160 (D.C.Cir.1984), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, ----, 105 S.Ct. 1843, 85 L.Ed.2d 142 (1985), since both have had "the opportunity to observe the witnesses and to consider the evidence in the context of a living trial rather than upon a cold record." Taylor v. Washington Terminal Co., 409 F.2d 145, 148 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 835, 90 S.Ct. 93, 24 L.Ed.2d 85 (1969).

III

Applying these well-settled principles to the record before us, we conclude that sufficient evidence was adduced to permit the jury reasonably to find in favor of General Maintenance. For one thing, the jury had before it evidence from which it could have concluded that Mr. Grogan was contributorily negligent. ⁷ Two witnesses, as we have seen, testified that the wet condition of the floor was apparent and obvious as they entered the restroom. It was also revealed that the floor was frequently wet;...