Minor v. Engineering Service Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 04 November 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 47731,47731 |
| Citation | 304 So.2d 45 |
| Parties | Carrie MINOR v. ENGINEERING SERVICE CO., INC. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Wells & Tipton, Natchez, for appellant.
Watkins & Eager, Elizabeth W. Hulen, Hassell H. Whitworth, Jackson, for appellee.
This is an appeal by Carrie Minor from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Adams County dismissing her suit against appellee Engineering Service Co., Inc. for damages for personal injuries. The judgment was entered as a result of a directed verdict in favor of appellee. We reverse and remand.
Appellant brought suit against appellee for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the employees of appellee. The declaration charged that on July 28, 1970, employees and agents of appellee were making a survey for a location for an oil well near and on the resident property of Lottie Wesley, mother of appellant. The house was located on what was known as Overton Plantation in Adams County, and it was charged that on the date in question appellant was visiting her mother and when she started to leave she tripped on a metal tape or chain that the employees of appellee had placed across the front porch of her mother's residence. As a result of her fall she suffered serious and permanent injuries to her back.
It was charged that appellee was guilty of negligence in pulling the tape or chain across the front porch of appellant's mother's home without giving any warning to the occupants of the house. It was also charged that appellee knew or should have known that by stretching this tape or chain across the porch the occupants of the house would not see or suspect this hazard in their path on leaving the house.
Appellee answered the declaration and admitted on July 28, 1970, some of its employees were making a survey near the residence of Lottie Wesley, mother of appellant, in Adams County. Appellee denied that the accident occurred as described in the declaration and denied that it was guilty of any negligence that caused or contributed to appellant's injury. After answering appellee alleged the following affirmative matters:
That on the date of the incident complained of in the Declaration of Plaintiff, employees of Defendant in conducting a survey to stake-out an oil well site placed a small metal tape across the front porch of the home of the mother of the Plaintiff; that after said tape was placed across said porch, Plaintiff and others walked across the porch and across said tape and into the home of the mother of Plaintiff; that the tape as placed on the porch was open, obvious and was seen or should have been seen by plaintiff and any and all others who walked across same since said tape lying in said position was in no way concealed and could be seen by anyone exercising any type of reasonable care; that if Plaintiff did trip and fall by stumbling over the tape, as alleged, all of which is denied, then Defendant would show that the sole cause of the fall was the negligence of Plaintiff in failing to exercise due care and seeing the open, obvious condition which was in plain view of Plaintiff; and that the aforesaid negligent acts and omissions of plaintiff were either the sole proximate cause or a contributing proximate cause of any fall, if one occurred, which is denied, and any and all resulting injuries and damages, if any, sustained by Plaintiff.
A trial was had at the March 1972 term of court which resulted in a mistrial because the jury failed to agree. The trial involved on this appeal was had at the March 1973 term of the court. The proof on behalf of appellant was to the effect that she went to the home of her mother on the day in question for the purpose of taking her mother to the doctor. The house where her mother lived was located on Sligo Plantation and had been rented by her mother for about twelve years. Appellant testified that when she arrived at the home of her mother about 4 p.m., she did not see any men making a survey. There was no tape or chain across the front porch. She remained in her mother's home for about thirty minutes and when she was leaving she walked out on the porch and tripped over a tape or chain causing her to fall backwards off the porch striking a concrete block. As a result she suffered severe injuries to her back consisting of two ruptured vertebrae requiring surgery. She said that after she fell she noticed two men, one white and one black. The white man came up and without identifying himself gave her sister the name and address of his employer, the appellee, and told her to get in touch with them if she had any medical bills.
Appellant's testimony was corroborated by her sister...
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...to the home of the occupant, not for a business purpose, but, nevertheless, for the benefit of the occupant. Minor v. Engineering Serv. Co., Inc., 304 So.2d 45 (Miss.1974). Carrie Minor, while at the home of her mother, tripped over a surveyor's tape left on the porch of her mother's home b......
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...home of the occupant, not for business purposes, but, nevertheless, for the occupant's benefit. Id. at 929 (citing Minor v. Eng'g Serv. Co., 304 So.2d 45, 48 (Miss.1974)). ¶ 16. While the facts in the case sub judice are not precisely "on all fours" with the facts in Hall or Minor, Pinnell,......
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