Hayes v. Otis Elevator Co.
| Decision Date | 28 October 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-2997,90-2997 |
| Citation | 946 F.2d 1272 |
| Parties | 16 UCC Rep.Serv.2d 649, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 12,964 Josephine M. HAYES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Emmanuel F. Guyon (argued), Streator, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.
James P. DeNardo, Christine L. Olson (argued), Charles P. Menges, Steven P. Rouse, McKenna, Storer, Rowe, White & Farrug, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellee.
Before EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE, and MANION, Circuit Judges.
Josephine Hayes fell and was injured while riding up an escalator that was manufactured, installed, and maintained by Otis Elevator Co. (Otis). Mrs. Hayes brought suit against Otis on theories of negligence and products liability. The district court granted Otis' motion for summary judgment on the products liability claim on the ground that it was barred by the applicable Illinois statute of repose. The negligence claims were tried before a jury which, after the district court denied Mrs. Hayes' motion for a directed verdict, found in favor of Otis. Mrs. Hayes appeals the court's grant of summary judgment on the products liability claim as well as the court's denial of her motion for a directed verdict. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
On March 23, 1986, Josephine Hayes and her family arrived at Water Tower Place, a multi-level shopping complex in Chicago. Immediately after entering the lobby, the group proceeded up the escalator toward the second floor in the following order: Mrs. Hayes' son, Patrick Hayes; her husband, William Hayes; her niece, Beverly Salon; her son's friend, Nancy Enis; Josephine Hayes herself; and her sister, Catherine Nycz.
Mrs. Hayes did not hold on to either handrail as she rode up the escalator. Between the ground floor and the second floor, there is a mezzanine--an intermediate landing at which one must step off the first escalator, walk twelve to fifteen feet forward, and board a second escalator.
Mrs. Hayes was unaware of this arrangement. At or near the point at which the first escalator meets the mezzanine, Mrs. Hayes fell and landed on the mezzanine floor. She injured her right wrist
After helping his mother get up off the floor and sit down on a bench on the mezzanine, Patrick Hayes rode the down escalator to the ground floor and told the security guard, Lauren Winterhelt, about the incident. Mrs. Hayes soon followed with the rest of the group, and, after both Patrick and Mrs. Hayes had talked with Officer Winterhelt, Patrick hailed a cab and took Mrs. Hayes to a nearby hospital. Mrs. Hayes was diagnosed as having a fractured wrist. The wrist was placed in a cast and she was released. After personally examining the escalators and finding no defect, Officer Winterhelt filled out an incident report.
Mrs. Hayes, an Illinois resident, brought suit in Illinois state court against Otis, a New Jersey corporation with its principal place of business in Connecticut. Otis had manufactured, installed, and maintained the escalator. In Count I of her complaint, Mrs. Hayes alleged that Otis was negligent in (1) failing to maintain the escalator in a reasonably safe condition, and (2) failing to provide the escalator with adequate safety devices to warn passengers of the exit point at the mezzanine. In Count II of the complaint, Mrs. Hayes alleged that Otis was liable under Illinois' product liability statutes for defective and dangerous design of the escalator. Otis removed the case to federal court on diversity grounds.
Before trial, the district court granted Otis' motion for summary judgment on the products liability claim on the ground that it was barred by Illinois' statute of repose for product liability actions. The negligence claims were tried before a jury. At trial, Mrs. Hayes testified that her fall was caused by an escalator malfunction, which caused the escalator to "jerk suddenly" and throw her three or four feet forward through the air. Mrs. Hayes' testimony was corroborated by her sister, Catherine Nycz, her son, Patrick Hayes, and her niece, Beverly Salon.
Mrs. Hayes' own expert witness, John Donnelly, however, testified that he did not believe that the escalator jerked violently. Rather, he believed Mrs. Hayes fell because Tr. at 88. In Mr. Donnelly's expert opinion, had the escalator malfunctioned as Mrs. Hayes believed it did, there would have been a "catastrophic failure" of the equipment, and it would not have continued running. Mr. Donnelly further testified that it is the custom and practice in the escalator industry for the building owner or manager--not the escalator manufacturer--to provide warnings other than the small yellow pictographs at the entrance of the escalators advising passengers to hold on to the handrail and hold a child's hand. The law requires the escalator manufacturer to attach these pictographs, and Otis had complied.
At the end of her evidence, Mrs. Hayes moved for a directed verdict. The motion was denied, and Otis presented its case. The security guard, Officer Winterhelt, testified that Patrick Hayes had reported to her that he thought Mrs. Hayes caught her heel in the comb section at the top of the escalator. A second security guard, William Reilly, testified that he received a call from Patrick Hayes on April 2, 1986, informing Water Tower Place that Mrs. Hayes' wrist was indeed broken. Reading from his written report of the phone call, Officer Reilly testified that Patrick told him that Mrs. Hayes fell because her heel became stuck in the ridges in the step of the escalator and, when she reached the mezzanine, she was unable to free her foot. An Otis employee, Robert Walesa, who was the maintenance mechanic responsible for the escalators at Water Tower Place, testified that he inspected the escalator thirty-six hours after the incident and noticed no defects.
At the close of the evidence, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Otis.
Mrs. Hayes asks this court to reverse the district court's denial of her request for a directed verdict on her negligence claims.
Because "[a] motion for a directed verdict raises only a question of law," our review on this issue is de novo. Daniel J. Hartwig Assoc. v. Kanner, 913 F.2d 1213, 1221 (7th Cir.1990). In a diversity case such as this, we look to the law of the forum state for the legal standard for granting a motion for directed verdict. Wiliams v. Jader Fuel Co., 944 F.2d 1388, 1393 (7th Cir.1991). 1 Illinois law is clear; its standard was set forth in Pedrick v. Peoria & E. R.R. Co.:
In our judgment verdicts ought to be directed ... only in those cases in which all of the evidence, when viewed in its aspect most favorable to the opponent, so overwhelmingly favors movant that no contrary verdict based on that evidence could ever stand.
37 Ill.2d 494, 229 N.E.2d 504, 513-14 (1967). 2 Mrs. Hayes thus faces the herculean task of convincing this court that all the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to Otis, so overwhelmingly favors her negligence claims that no reasonable jury could find in favor of Otis.
Under a service agreement with Water Tower Place, Otis had been responsible for maintaining the escalator from 1975, when it installed the escalator, through the time of Mrs. Hayes' fall in 1986. Mrs. Hayes contends that Otis was negligent in maintaining the escalator in a reasonably safe condition and that this negligence was the proximate cause of her fall and injury. Specifically, Mrs. Hayes contends that the poor condition of the escalator caused it to lurch violently and, consequently, to throw her three or four feet forward over the comb-plate junction onto the landing. Her testimony was supported, in varying degrees, by that of her niece, her son, and her sister.
But Mrs. Hayes' expert witness, Mr. Donnelly, testified that it was his opinion that her fall was caused by her being distracted by the "ambient environment" and not watching her step. Mr. Donnelly reached this conclusion because he believed that, had the escalator lurched violently enough to throw a passenger forward, there would have been a "catastrophic failure" of the equipment. There was no evidence of such a failure. Indeed, the security officer on the scene and an escalator mechanic both testified that they checked the condition of the escalator after the incident and found it to be running normally. Furthermore, the security officer on the scene testified that Patrick Hayes told her that Mrs. Hayes fell because her heel was caught in the escalator comb-plate. A second security officer also testified that Patrick Hayes called Water Tower Place a few days after the incident and reported that Mrs. Hayes fell because her heel was caught in the escalator step.
On the issue of whether Otis negligently maintained the escalator, Mrs. Hayes simply has not persuaded this court that the evidence, when viewed in its aspect most favorable to Otis, so overwhelmingly favors her claim that no contrary verdict based on that evidence could ever stand. 3
Mrs. Hayes' second theory of recovery is that Otis failed to warn passengers to keep a proper lookout or to step off the escalator at the intermediate landing area. Mrs. Hayes was unable to persuade the district court that Otis had any such duty. She cited no Illinois statute or case that imposes such a duty. Mrs. Hayes' own expert witness, Mr. Donnelly, testified that there are no...
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