Houser v. Walter Ballard Optical Co.

• Decision Date: 25 October 1963
• Docket Number: No. 40344,No. 3,40344,3
• Parties: Sarah T. HOUSER v. WALTER BALLARD OPTICAL COMPANY et al
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 924

133 S.E.2d 924

108 Ga.App. 559

Sarah T. HOUSER v. WALTER BALLARD OPTICAL COMPANY et al.

No. 40344.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 3.

Oct. 25, 1963.

Mrs. Sarah Turner Houser brought an action against Walter Ballard Optical Company, a tenant of, and Medical Building Company, Inc., the owner of, a building, for damages for alleged injuries received in a fall. The material portions of the petition contain the following allegations: 'The said Walter Ballard Optical Company was at all times pertinent to this petition a tenant of Medical Building Company, Inc., the owner and lessor of the building known as the Medical Arts Building, and located at 384 Peachtree Street, N. E., Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Walter Ballard Optical Company maintains an office in said building for the purpose of filling prescriptions for persons who are in need of glasses, for other visual aids and for the purpose of repairing and changing glasses. On October 27, 1960, your petitioner, who was at said time 83 years of age, entered the office of Walter Ballard Optical Company, which is located in the Medical Arts Building for the purpose of having her glasses changed. Your petitioner was an invitee of Walter Ballard Optical Company during normal business hours and, after having completed her busness with said Walter Ballard Optical Company early in the afternoon, she proceeded to leave said premises by the way of a door which entered onto the main inside hallway of the Medical Arts Building. In order to make exit from said premises of Walter Ballard Optical Company into the hallway of the Medical Arts Building, it is necessary to open a heavy, inwardswinging door, step onto a ledge inside the doorway, and then step down a distance of about nine inches onto the marble floor of said hallway. Petitioner shows that the said step-down was approximately nine inches in height and that the coloring of the floor level in Walter Ballard Optical Company, the ledge above referred to, and the floor of said hallway in the Medical Arts Building was contrasting but deceiving and that your petitioner in the exercise of ordinary care was unable to judge the nine inch step-down. When your petitioner attempted to step from one floor level to the other, after opening the said heavy door, and while stepping down onto the marble floor of said hallway, she fell and sustained serious permanent personal injuries, including a broken hip. Your petitioner shows that she was attempting to leave said Optical Company and enter the Medical Arts Building for the purpose of going to see her doctor, Dr. Robert L. Whipple, who was a tenant in said Medical Arts, Building, and was at all times pertinent to this petition an invitee of both defendants. Your petitioner shows that she was not possessed of good eyesight at the time of said fall and that this, combined with the height of the step and the coloring aforesaid, prevented her from making a safe step-down. Petitioner shows that at all times mentioned herein the said premises heretofore described were unsafe and dangerous, especially with respect to elderly people with poor eyesight, sick, infirm, feeble, aged, crippled and partially blind persons, whose presence both defendants should have anticipated in the exercise of ordinary care, said defendants being engaged in businesses concerned with the health and welfare of their invitees. Your petitioner shows that defendants herein, by and through their agents, failed to warn your petitioner of the dangerous and unsafe condition of said change in floor level as hereinabove set out and further failed to provide any rails, hand-holds or other means by which she might have steadied herself while descending said step down as above alleged. Defendants herein, by and through their agents, failed to anticipate that your petitioner might fall and injure herself at the place hereinabove described and under the conditions hereinabove described. Defendants herein by and through their agents, failed to provide a person to assist your petitioner in opening said heavy door and making her step from one floor level to the other. Defendants herein, by and through their agents, held out to your petitioner impliedly that said step from said Optical Company onto the floor of said Medical Arts Building was a reasonably safe means of egress. P...