Johnson v. Ramberg

• Decision Date: 25 April 1892
• Citation: 49 Minn. 341,51 N.W. 1043
• Parties: JOHNSON v RAMBERG.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

49 Minn. 341

51 N.W. 1043

JOHNSONvRAMBERG.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 25, 1892.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

The defendant, a merchant, allowed customers to enter his store by passing through an adjoining wareroom used by him for receiving and storing goods. The plaintiff, while passing through the wareroom to enter the store, fell down a cellar stairway by reason of not looking where he went. Held, that the defendant was not responsible.

Appeal from district court, Chisago county; WILLISTON, Judge.

Action by Jonas G. Johnson against John F. Ramberg to recover for personal injuries. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Daniel Murphy, for appellant.

S. C. Olmstead, for respondent.

DICKINSON, J.

The defendant was engaged in the business of a merchant in a village in this state. The building occupied by him consisted of a large, well-lighted room, where he sold goods and did business with his customers, and which will be hereafter designated as the “store,” and of a long room, 18 feet wide, extending along the west side of the store, from which it was separated only by a partition. A door in this partition, partly composed of glass, afforded communication between the two rooms. The room last described will be designated the “wareroom.” This was used for the storing of large packages, and of cumbersome and heavy goods, such as pork, fish, salt, oil, nails, etc., and also as a place where the defendant received goods in bulk, including potatoes and other produce brought to him by farmers. The main entrance to the store was directly from the street at the south end or front. There was also an entrance in the rear, near the north-west corner. In the middle of the west wall of the wareroom was a sliding door six feet wide and seven feet high, arranged so as to be opened, closed, and fastened from the inside only, and which was designed and principally used for receiving or shipping out goods as above indicated; but some of the defendant's customers used to occupy vacant premises just west of the building as a place for their teams to stand, and those leaving their teams there would often enter the store from that side, when they found the large sliding door open, passing through that, across the wareroom, and into the store through the glass door before referred to, which was nearly opposite the large sliding door. This had been allowed to such an extent that it may be said that people were permitted to enter the store by that way. The only stairway leading into the cellar of the building was in the wareroom close to the partition between the rooms, and nearly opposite the large sliding...