Morgan v. Washington Trust Co.

• Decision Date: 10 January 1969
• Docket Number: No. 372-A,372-A
• Citation: 249 A.2d 48,105 R.I. 13
• Parties: John MORGAN et ux. v. WASHINGTON TRUST COMPANY. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 48

249 A.2d 48

105 R.I. 13

John MORGAN et ux. v. WASHINGTON TRUST COMPANY.

No. 372-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Jan. 10, 1969.

Natale L. Urso, John J. Adamo, Westerly, for plaintiffs

Raymond A. LaFazia, John F. McDonough, Providence, for defendant.

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

This is a negligence action brought by a husband and wife for injuries received by the wife in a fall on stairs leading into a branch bank operated by the defendant. The case was tried before a justice of the superior court sitting with a jury. The jury awarded the wife the sum of $9,000 and returned a verdict on the husband's claim for consequential damages in the amount of $2,500. The trial justice denied the defendant's motion for a new trial. In its appeal, the defendant challenges the correctness of several of the trial justice's evidentiary rulings and certain portions of his charge to the jury. It also claims that its motion for a new trial should have been granted. Although we shall limit our discussion to the wife's phase of the instant claim, what we say shall be dispositive of the husband's interest in this proceeding.

The defendant is a banking corporation duly organized pursuant to the laws of Rhode Island. Its main place of business is located in Westerly. It also maintains a branch bank in the Hope Valley section of Hopkinton. The building that houses defendant's operation at one time also contained other commercial endeavors, including a grocery store and a plumbing shop. Over the years, defendant's Hope Valley business increased to such an extent that it had to take over certain portions of the building previously occupied for non-banking endeavors. Accordingly, in late 1962 or early 1962, defendant undertook an extensive renovation project at its branch office. A complete face-lifting of the exterior of the front of the Hope Valley facility was accomplished. The bank's entrance was refurbished. The old wooden doors which had swung inward were replaced by two sets of aluminum and glass doors which in accordance with accepted safety standards opened outward. Each set consisted of two doors-hereafter we shall refer to the sets as the outer set and the inner set.

At the completion of the renovations, a patron seeking entrance into the bank would walk up three steps to a small landing, cross over it to the outer set of two doors, each door being 30 inches wide, pull one of the doors toward him, step up about nine inches into a vestibule, walk through the vestibule to an inner set of doors which also required a similar pull, open one of the doors and advance into the main portion of the bank where tellers have serviced the needs of the economy-minded residents of this area for more than a quarter of a century.

The plaintiffs are residents of Hopkinton and have maintained a savings account at defendant's branch for many years-both before and after the overhaul of the premises. April 21, 1965 was 'a beautiful day' and shortly before noon, Mrs. Morgan, a woman fo short stature and slight build, drove to the bank. She parked her car and ascended the three steps at the entrance of the bank, crossed over the landing and reached for the handle which extended downward from the door. What then transpired is best described by quoting the following portion of her testimony:

'I put up my hand on the handle to pull the door and it seemed rather hard to pull and all of a sudden it flipped open and I flipped back, and I flipped back on my back n the curbstone with my head on the curb.'

The plaintiff wife was assisted into the bank where the branch manager ministered to her needs. She then drove home and consulted a local physician. Sometime later in the afternoon, Mrs. Morgan was admitted to the South County Hospital where she remained for a period of about 2 1/2 weeks. The day after her admittance, a series of x rays were taken of plaintiff's back. The hospital records covering this period of plaintiff's treatment contained final diagnosis which described her injuries as being multiple contusions of the entire body.

After her discharge from the hospital, Mrs. Morgan continued to be treated by her physician. She returned to the South County Hospital on two subsequent occasions. In September 1965 she was a patient there for three weeks. Later, in May 1966, she spent two weeks at this institution. The hospital records covering these two periods of treatment contained a final diagnosis that plaintiff's complaint was osteoarthritis of the cervical and thoracic spine.

The trial in the superior court took on the air of a battle of experts. The doctor who treated plaintiff stated that as a result of the April 21 incident his patient suffered a narrowing of the fifth lumbosacral space. He also stated that the pain which forced the last two stays at the hospital was due to a quiescent arthritic condition which had been ignited by her fall. An architect who testified for plaintiff stated that in his opinion the design and construction of the bank's entranceway was defective in three separate and distinct respects. The defendant fielded a group of experts in the fields of building design and the medical sciences. Their testimony differed from that offered by plaintiff's witnesses.

While defendant contends that the trial justice committed numerous errors, it is our considered judgment that we should limit ourselves to a consideration of only two aspects of its appeal.

I The Testimony of Plaintiff's Architect

The defendant asserts the testimony offered by the architect on behalf of plaintiff should not have been allowed into evidence. His argument is two-fold. First, he states generally that there was no need for expert testimony as to the physical makeup of defendant bank's entranceway because this matter was readily within the grasp of men of ordinary intelligence. He also urges that we invalidate a certain portion of the expert's opinion because it was based upon a supposition which had no factual basis in the evidence. For the reasons that follow we can find no merit in this phase of defendant's appeal.

Generally, all matters of opinion are excluded from evidence as being unreliable. are excluded from evidence as being unreliable. A. 363; Latham v. Latham, R.I. 133 A. 241. The primary objective of any trial is to educe evidence which is rigidly based on fact, and thereafter to submit this evidence to the jury's deliberation in the expectation that their verdict will be founded upon truth. To needlessly permit speculative or opinion testimony to come before the jury for its consideration is to disregard the discipline of truth and to condone the possibility that non-objective statements might form the basis for the jury's verdict.

Expert testimony, on the other hand, involves an exception to the general rule excluding opinions. The rule, long established in this and other states, is that where the subject matter of the testimony is of a mechanical, scientific, professional or like nature, none of which is within the understanding of laymen of ordinary intelligence, and where the witness seeking to testify possesses special knowledge, skill or information about the subject matter acquired by study, observation, practice or experience, then such an individual's opinion may be heard as an aid to the jury in its quest to discover the truth. See 2 Wigmore, (3d ed.) Evidence, §§ 555-563. The decision to include or exclude proposed expert testimony rests with the sound discretion of the trial justice. In reaching it, he must give consideration to the natural tendency of jurors to place greater weight on the testimony of one qualified as an expert. His decision must reflect his belief that the value to be derived from the proposed testimony in terms of aiding the jury in its search for the truth justifies the admission of the opinion evidence.

From the pictures which are in evidence, the entranceway to defendant's bank appears to the untutored eye to be perfectly safe. It is only when a trained individual such as plaintiff's architect compares the outward swing of the new doors with the depth of the platform, and when he explains the difficulty encountered by a person of short stature in reaching up and pulling open the door that the hazards that may surround entry into the bank become apparent. The trial justice was correct in allowing the jury to hear plaintiff's architect.

The defendant takes umbrage to that portion of the expert's opinion wherein he stated that the presence of weatherstripping on the inner set of doors permitted the creation of a vacuum within the vestibule that made it difficult for Mrs. Morgan to open the outer door. He points out that this witness's opinion was based on the assumption that the bank's doors were closed at the time plaintiff wife pulled on the outer door, but that there was no evidence to show that the inner doors were in fact closed on this beautiful April day. We agree with defendant that this was a conclusion premised upon fact that was not present in the evidence. Oliver v. Pettaconsett Const. Co., 36 R.I. 477, 90 A. 764; Eastman v. Dunn, 34 R.I. 416, 83 A. 1057. Nevertheless, we feel that the jury's decision as to defendant's negligence must stand for another reason.

At the trial, plaintiff developed two separate theories of negligence in addition to the vacuum-build-up theory which defendant bank complains of. The architect testified that safety-oriented architectural standards would require that the platform or landing at the top of the step should have extended at least 36 inches beyond the outward-most extent of the outer door when open. In fact, it extended only ten inches beyond the fully opened doors, which were described as 'stock doors.' The same witness also stated that the handle on the doors should have been placed lower to compensate for the nine-inch step over which the doors were installed. It is because this case went to the jury upon diverse theories of...