Hill v. McDonald

• Decision Date: 29 January 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-1110.,80-1110.
• Citation: 442 A.2d 133
• Parties: Reginald D. HILL, an infant, by his Guardian, Viola Greer, Appellant, v. Herbert G. McDONALD, et al., Appellees.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

442 A.2d 133

Reginald D. HILL, an infant, by his Guardian, Viola Greer, Appellant, v. Herbert G. McDONALD, et al., Appellees.

No. 80-1110.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued May 19, 1981.

Decided January 29, 1982.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William F. Mulroney, Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Gary W. Brown, Washington, D. C., with whom James F. Bromley, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellees.

Before HARRIS and PRYOR, Associate Judges, and GALLAGHER, Associate Judge, Retired.

GALLAGHER, Associate Judge, Retired:

Appellant Reginald D. Hill (hereinafter "Hill"), brought this action against appellees Herbert G. McDonald, et al., the individual partners in an architectural firm (hereinafter "the architects"), for personal injuries Hill suffered in a fall from an apartment house stairway alleged to have been negligently redesigned by the architects. Summary judgment was entered for the architects on the ground that a release given by Hill to the owner and manager of the apartment building (hereinafter "the landlord") in settlement of an earlier suit necessarily discharged the architects as agents of the landlord. Hill appeals from that judgment. Because we find that the trial judge's ruling on the effect of the release was bottomed on his resolution of an issue — proximate cause — which is properly for the jury, we reverse and remand.

The accident which gave rise to this suit occurred on September 4, 1972, in an apartment house located at 1308 Clifton Street, N.W. Hill, then about eight years of age, resided with his great-grandmother and guardian, Mrs. Viola Greer, on the fifth floor of the building. On the morning of September 4, Hill was on a fire exit stairway leading to a basement playroom when he allegedly slipped on a puddle of water, slid under the stair's protective handrail, and fell five stories to the basement below. He was severely injured.

In 1976, Hill brought an action (CA 5371-76) against the landlord of the building. The complaint alleged the creation and maintenance of two separate dangerous conditions: "the dangerous . . . protective railing"¹ and "the puddle of water on which the infant plaintiff slipped." After preliminary discovery revealed that Hill intended to prove that the railing was dangerous because defectively designed, the landlord filed a third-party complaint against the architects, who had been engaged by the landlord to draw up plans and specifications for rehabilitation of the building in 1968-70. The third-party complaint prayed not only for indemnification (on the ground that the landlord was only secondarily liable for any torts of its agent, the architects), but also for contribution (on the ground that any primary negligence of the landlord was concurrent with that of the architects). Significantly, the architects' answer to this third-party complaint was (as contained in their pretrial statement) that "if Third-Party Plaintiffs [the landlord] are liable to the plaintiff then such liability, if any, was or will have been caused by their own sole, intervening or supervening negligence." Thus, both the landlord and the architects in effect acknowledged in their pleadings that vicarious liability was not the sole basis upon which the landlord's liability was predicated; the landlord was also alleged to have been independently negligent in allowing the puddle of water to form.

After preliminary settlement negotiations proved fruitless, the case proceeded to trial on February 5, 1979. At the close of Hill's case, and before a ruling on the landlord's motion for a directed verdict, the parties entered into further settlement negotiations. At oral argument before this court, counsel for the architects stated that his clients were privy to these negotiations, but it soon became apparent that Hill was interested in settling only with the landlord. Ultimately, Hill, in consideration of $75,000, executed a "Release and Settlement of Claim" purporting to discharge only the landlord. The architects did not sign this agreement in any capacity, although the printed form does recite that "It is further agreed that in the event other parties are responsible to [Hill] for damages as a result of this accident, the execution of this agreement shall operate as a satisfaction of [Hill's] claim against such other parties to the extent of the pro rata share of the parties herein released [the landlord]." A Consent Judgment in favor of Hill and against the landlord was subsequently issued by the court. A praecipe requesting the clerk to enter the consent judgment paid and satisfied and to dismiss with prejudice the landlord's third-party complaint against the architect was filed the same day.

On April 19, 1979 — less than six weeks after settling with the landlord — Hill filed a separate suit (CA 4962-79) against the architects. The claimed negligence was that the stairwell railing "failed to meet the standards in the architectural field for design and safety." More than one year after institution of this suit, the architects moved for summary judgment, chiefly on the ground that Hill's settlement of his claim against the landlord barred his later suit against the architects engaged by the landlord.² The motion, opposed by Hill, was argued on July 23, 1980, and granted in open court.

In his ruling from the bench, the motions judge took as his starting point the proposition that the release of a principal releases the agent upon whose account the principal's liability had been predicated. He recognized, however, that Hill's complaint against the landlord, as well as his pretrial statement, had alleged two bases for liability: vicarious liability based on the architects' negligence in failing to make the handrail safe, and direct liability for the landlord's own negligence in failing to detect and remove the puddle. Nevertheless, the judge stated:

It seems to me that the substance of the subject matter must prevail over the form and the substance of the matter is that the accident could not have occurred, even though there had been a slip or a fall on the wet floor, unless the railing was, as was claimed, deficient or unsafe. So that it seems to me that the allegations of personal negligence, insofar as the puddle is concerned, must inextricably be linked with the allegations of imputed negligence. That is, an unsafe condition created by the architect.

Accordingly, it seems to me that however the matter may have been pleaded, this was a case in which the indispensable theory of liability was vicarious liability.

It therefore appears to the court that this case is governed by the proposition of law that the exoneration of a party whose liability is assertedly vicarious, whether the exoneration comes about by judgment or by settlement, must lead to the exoneration of the party whose personal negligence was the source of the imputed liability.

It seems clear that the motions judge's ruling was, in essence, grounded on his finding that it was the unsafe handrailing which was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injury. There is no other reasonable explanation (or justification) for his conclusion that the "substance" of the suit against the landlord was solely vicarious liability, and that therefore the allegation that the landlord had negligently allowed a puddle to form could be "read out" of the complaint in the earlier suit. The judge necessarily decided that, as a matter of law, the proximate cause of plaintiff's injury was the defective handrail and not the puddle — or the puddle and handrail combined. This was error.

It is well-settled that proximate cause (like negligence) is ordinarily a question of fact for the jury. Hanna v. Fletcher, 97 U.S.App.D.C. 310, 314, 231 F.2d 469, 473, cert. denied, 351 U.S. 989, 76 S.Ct. 1051, 100 L.Ed. 1051 (1956). It is only in cases where it is clear that reasonable men could draw but one conclusion from the facts alleged that negligence and proximate cause become questions of law. District of Columbia v. Lapiana, D.C.App., 194 A.2d 303 (1963); McGettigan v. National Bank of Washington, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 384, 386, 320 F.2d 703, 705 (1963); Tan Top Cab Co. v. Shiner, D.C.Mun.App., 125 A.2d 68, 69 (1956). These cases have been said to be "exceptional." Hardy v. Hardy, D.C.App., 197 A.2d 923, 925 (1964); District of Columbia v. Lapiana, supra at 304.

It cannot be said that reasonable men could only conclude that the allegedly defective railing was the single "but-for" cause of the plaintiff's injury. The inference to be gleaned from the allegations of both complaints is that the puddle and railing combined to produce the accident, and that each was a "but-for" cause of the injury. While it can be said that Hill would not have fallen five stories if the railing had been correctly designed, it is equally arguable that he would not have fallen initially if the puddle had not caused him to slip. It is sufficient, however, that a reasonable jury could find the puddle to have been a proximate cause of the injury. For that reason alone, the motions judge's decision that the railing was necessarily the sole proximate cause was clearly erroneous.

In other words, the first complaint — as amplified by Hill's pretrial statement — alleged not only that the landlord was vicariously liable for the railing, but also that the landlord was a joint tortfeasor³ with the architects. It is well-established in this jurisdiction that one cannot escape liability for one's own negligence merely because another person, with whom one has no connection, or over whom one has no control, may have contributed to the injury by his wrongful or negligent act. Hicks v. United States, 167 U.S.App.D.C. 169, 183, 511 F.2d 407, 421 (1975); Becker v. Colonial Parking, Inc., 133 U.S.App.D.C. 213, 220, 409 F.2d 1130, 1137 (1969); Metropolitan R.R. Co. v. Jones, 1 App.D.C. 200, 205 (1893). The law does not recognize a single proximate cause of every injury. There...