Hamm v. Ramunno

• Decision Date: 27 July 1971
• Citation: 281 A.2d 601
• Parties: Walter S. HAMM and Bonnie E. Hamm, his wife, Plaintiffs Below, Appellants, v. Lee Vincent RAMUNNO, Defendant Below, Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 601

281 A.2d 601

Walter S. HAMM and Bonnie E. Hamm, his wife, Plaintiffs Below, Appellants, v. Lee Vincent RAMUNNO, Defendant Below, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

July 27, 1971.

Appeal from Superior Court in and for New Castle County.

Howard Berg and William J. Taylor, III, Wilmington, for appellants.

Ben T. Castle, of Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, Wilmington, for appellee.

WOLCOTT, Chief Justice, and CAREY and HERRMANN, Justices, sitting.

WOLCOTT, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from the entry of a judgment for the defendant in a personal injury action.

The defendant is the owner of a 75-year-old house located at 200 East Tenth Street, Wilmington. He proposed to convert this house to combination dwelling and office. He hired the plaintiff, a carpenter experienced in light carpentering, to complete the renovations. At the rear of the building there was a room with a shed-type roof. The defendant, himself, removed two sidewalls from this room and a substantial portion of the rear wall. In fact, he had removed all but three of the original rear wall studs which supported a ceiling beam. In addition, he had installed at a distance of 18 inches from the former rear wall temporary two-by-four supports extending from the floor level up to the roof rafters. These temporary supports did not support the ceiling beam.

The defendant approached the plaintiff to complete the renovation. The plaintiff, in the company of the defendant, inspected the premises and informed the defendant that he could do the job. Thereafter, he reported for work with an assistant and again talked about what the defendant wanted and commenced work.

One thing the defendant insisted upon was the removal of the large ceiling beam which formerly was at the juncture of the ceiling and rear wall of the room being enlarged. The plaintiff cut the three remaining wall studs supporting the ceiling beam and removed them, and commenced to pry the ceiling beam out of the plaster. In the space of two to five minutes, the ceiling beam and the plaster ceiling collapsed, injuring the plaintiff.

The reason for the collapse of the ceiling and the wall beam was that the ceiling joists had not been affixed in any manner to the rafters supporting the shed-type roof. The removal, therefore, of the wall studs left the ceiling beam and the ceiling, itself, without any support. Presumably, the attempt of the plaintiff to pry out the ceiling beam had some effect upon the collapse.

Neither the plaintiff and his assistant nor the defendant realized that the ceiling joists were not fastened to the roof rafters; nor could this fact have been ascretained without demolition work to permit the examination of any connection between the ceiling joists and the roof rafters. This additional demolition work was not performed by the plaintiff.

The defendant, a lawyer, had not done the additional demolition necessary to ascertain the failure to join the ceiling joists to the roof rafters. As a matter of fact, the defendant did not even know that the joining of these timbers was proper building practice. A structural engineer testifying as an expert for the plaintiff testified that the removal of the three supporting wall studs supporting the ceiling beam without a prior inspection and determination of a ceiling-roof connection did not constitute good practice.

The case went to trial before a jury and the jury ultimately disagreed. The defendant thereupon renewed his motions for a directed verdict made continuously throughout the trial on the grounds that he was not guilty of any negligence and, also, that the plaintiff, himself, was guilty of contributory negligence. The trial judge ultimately...