Helmick v. Northway Center Associates

• Decision Date: 01 May 1991
• Citation: 817 S.W.2d 323
• Parties: Edna E. HELMICK and William R. Helmick, Plaintiffs/Appellants, v. NORTHWAY CENTER ASSOCIATES, Henry Allen Bartlett, Properties Ten Management Corp., and Family Dollar Stores, Inc., Defendants/Appellees.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 323

817 S.W.2d 323

Edna E. HELMICK and William R. Helmick, Plaintiffs/Appellants, v. NORTHWAY CENTER ASSOCIATES, Henry Allen Bartlett, Properties Ten Management Corp., and Family Dollar Stores Inc., Defendants/Appellees.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee Middle Section, at Nashville.

May 1, 1991.

Permission to Appeal Denied by

Supreme Court Sept. 23, 1991.

Gene Hallworth, Columbia, for plaintiffs/appellants.

Doyle E. Richardson, Christina Henley Duncan, Manchester, Dalton M. Mounger, DuBois & Mounger, Columbia, for defendants/appellees.

OPINION

CANTRELL, Judge.

The sole question in this appeal is whether the uncontroverted facts in the record show that the appellant was contributorially negligent when she tripped and fell on the appellees' premises. The trial judge so held and granted summary judgment to the appellees. We affirm.

I.

Family Dollar Stores, Inc. operates a store in the Northway Shopping Center in Columbia. The store entrance is two steps above the level of the parking lot immediately in front of the store and one step above the sidewalk. Approaching the store from either direction on the sidewalk customers walk up a gently sloping ramp to the door level. Approaching from the parking lot directly in front of the door, however, customers must step up one step to the sidewalk level and then another to the highest point of the ramp at the door level. Since the ramp slopes both ways from its highest point, the second step up from the parking lot gets progressively shorter the farther away from the center of the door a customer approaches.

The plaintiff, Edna Helmick, parked her car and approached the Family Dollar Store from the parking lot. She stepped up on the sidewalk level with her left foot intending to step up on the ramp with her right foot. Instead, she stumped her toe and fell, suffering personal injuries.

Mrs. Helmick sued the store, the landlord and the property manager alleging that they were negligent in the design, construction and maintenance of the ramp.

After taking Mrs. Helmick's deposition, all defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. Mrs. Helmick countered with the affidavit of an architect and her own affidavit. The architect's affidavit contained his opinion that the sidewalk and ramp created a danger to the public. He said the two-step approach from the front was dangerous because the public did not expect to encounter a second step after stepping onto the sidewalk. In addition, the slope of the ramp made the second step's height vary depending on where a customer approached from the parking lot.

In Mrs. Helmick's deposition, she said she approached the store from the parking lot in front and stepped up on the "curb" with her left foot. When she attempted to step up on the ramp with her right foot, she stumped her toe and fell. She admitted that she saw the second step. When asked what caused her to stumble over the second step, she replied, "Well, evidently, I didn't get my foot high enough." Later she said, "I don't know why I didn't [lift her foot high enough]. Not that there was anything wrong, I just misjudged."

The trial judge filed a memorandum opinion in which he expressed some doubt about the record supporting a finding of negligence on the part of the defendants. But, more importantly, he found that the uncontradicted proof showed that Mrs. Helmick...