Jones v. Otis Elevator Co.
| Decision Date | 21 November 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 388,388 |
| Citation | 234 N.C. 512,67 S.E.2d 492 |
| Parties | JONES, v. OTIS ELEVATOR CO. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Jones, Reed & Griffin, Kinston, for plaintiff-appellant.
Whitaker & Jeffress, Kinston, for defendant-appellee.
This is not an ordinary tort action. The liability of the defendant, if any, must flow from the negligent breach of its contract with the Medical College of Virginia. This was pointed out in the former opinion referred to herein. 231 N.C. 285, 56 S.E.2d 684. See also 12 Am.Jur. 820, et seq.; 38 Am.Jur. 664; 45 C.J. 650; 65 C.J.S., Negligence, § 4; Standard Oil Co. v. Wakefield, 102 Va. 824, 47 S.E. 830, 66 L.R.A. 792; American Oil Co. v. Nicholas, 156 Va. 1, 157 S.E. 754.
It is admitted that at the time of plaintiff's injury the defendant was under contract with the Medical College of Virginia to maintain some twenty elevators in buildings owned or controlled by the Medical College of Virginia, including the one in Memorial Hall. The defendant, however, under the terms of its contract, which is attached to and made a part of the plaintiff's complaint, expressly excluded therefrom the repair and maintenance of hoistway enclosures and hoistway doors, and door hangers on the passenger elevator in Memorial Hall.
The plaintiff alleges in her complaint, among other things, (1) that the defendant unlawfully, wrongfully, and negligently, failed to maintain lights on each floor of Memorial Hall at the point where the elevator well was located, and particularly on the third floor of the building; and (2) that the defendant unlawfully, and wrongfully violated its contract with the Medical College of Virginia in that it failed to maintain the elevator and the door closures and the electric interlocks attached thereto in proper repair so as to prevent one from opening the door to the elevator well when the cage or carriage was not at that floor.
We find nothing in the contract between the defendant and the Medical College of Virginia that required or permitted the defendant to have any control or supervision over the hallways of Memorial Hall, or the lighting facilities therein. And the plaintiff offered no evidence in support of her allegations in this respect. Moreover, there was evidence in the trial below to the effect that ample facilities had been provided for adequate light, but that the plaintiff and Mrs. Hoffman and Mrs. Epps made it a practice to turn out the light near the elevator entrance and the light in the elevator in order that no other person on the hall would observe its presence. Mrs. Epps testified, 'We turned the lights out so people couldn't see the elevator was there and when we came to use the elevator we stepped right in without putting a light on.'
As we construe the allegations of the complaint in the light of the status existing between the plaintiff and defendant, the defendant was not guilty of actionable negligence unless it negligently breached the legal duty arising out of its contract relation with the Medical College of Virginia to exercise ordinary care to keep the safety devices on the elevator in a reasonably safe condition and in proper repair, and such negligent breach of duty was the proximate cause, or one of the proximate causes, of plaintiff's injury.
The plaintiff is relying on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, citing Haag v. Harris, 4 Cal.2d 108, 48 P.2d 1; Gustavson v. Thomas, 227 App.Div. 303, 237 N.Y.S. 479; Class v. Young Women's C. A., 47 Ohio App. 128, 191 N.E. 102; Cramer v. Mergard, 56 Ohio App. 493, 11 N.E.2d 108; Moohr v. Victoria Inv. Co., 144 Wash. 387, 258 P. 43 These cases, however, involved automatic elevators and are not controlling upon a factual situation such as that before us.
The plaintiff sustained her...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Banaghan v. Dewey
...26 S.E.2d 380; Kahner v. Otis Elevator Co., 96 App.Div. 169, 89 N.Y.S. 185, affirmed 183 N.Y. 512, 76 N.E. 1097; Jones v. Otis Elevator Co., 234 N.C. 512, 515, 67 S.E.2d 492; Durham v. Warner Elevator Mfg. Co., 166 Ohio St 31, 139 N.E.2d 10. Restatement: Torts, § 311, illustration 1. Annota......
-
Williams v. Otis Elevator Co.
...Co., 69 Ga.App. 584, 26 S.E.2d 380 [1943]; Koch v. Otis Elevator Co., 10 App.Div.2d 464, 200 N.Y.S.2d 700 [1960]; Jones v. Otis Elevator Co., 234 N.C. 512, 67 S.E.2d 492 [1951]; Durham v. Warner Elevator Mfg. Co., 166 Ohio St. 31, 139 N.E.2d 10 [1956]; Wolfmeyer v. Otis Elevator Co., (Mo.) ......
-
Williams v. General Motors Corp.
...on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, the substantive rights of the parties are governed by the law of that state. Jones v. Elevator Co., 234 N.C. 512, 67 S.E.2d 492 (1951). Therefore, we look to the law of Virginia for the law of this case on that theory. In Arnold v. Wood, 173 Va. 18, 25,......
-
Pinnix v. Toomey
...G.S. § 160-280. Also, we have given consideration to the decisions in Jones v. Otis Elevator Co., 231 N.C. 285, 56 S.E.2d 684, and 234 N.C. 512, 67 S.E.2d 492, cited and relied on by the plaintiff. The facts in these cases are distinguishable. There the complaint incorporated in toto the co......