Oneker v. Liggett Drug Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 March 1938
• Citation: 124 Conn. 83,197 A. 887
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: ONEKER v. LIGGETT DRUG CO., Inc., et al.

197 A. 887

124 Conn. 83

ONEKER v. LIGGETT DRUG CO., Inc., et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

March 2, 1938

Appeal from Superior Court, Fairfield County; John Rufus Booth Judge.

Action by Florence Oneker against the Liggett Drug Company, Inc. and others, for injuries sustained when a hatchway in the sidewalk adjacent to the named defendant's store was raised. Judgment for plaintiff for $3,000 and defendants appeal, the named defendant filing a separate appeal.

No error.

$3,000 held not excessive, where 68 year old woman, previously in good health, suffered a sacroiliac sprain, with severe pains in back and lameness, was unable to stoop down and to do housework as before, and injury was permanent and would grow progressively worse.

Martin E. Gormley, of New Haven, for appellant Liggett Drug Co.

Joseph G. Shapiro and Harry Dinerstein, both of Bridgeport, for appellants Liquor Products Co. and others.

Raymond E. Baldwin, of Bridgeport, for appellee.

Argued before MALTBIE, C.J., and HENMAN, AVERY, BROWN, and JENNINGS, JJ.

AVERY, Judge.

The plaintiff brought this action to recover damages for injuries which she claimed to have received in consequence of walking against a door of a partially opened hatchway on the sidewalk on Fairfield avenue in Bridgeport near the entrance to the store of the defendant the Liggett Drug Company, Inc. She brought her action against that defendant and also against the Liquor Products Company, Inc., and the Yantic Grain &amp Products Company, on the ground that the servant of the latter two companies had raised the door of the hatchway whereby she was injured. The case was tried to the jury and the plaintiff recovered a verdict of $3,000 against all defendants which the trial court refused to set aside, and the defendants have appealed. The Liggett Drug Company filed a separate appeal from that of the other two defendants.

Taking the view of the evidence most favorable to the plaintiff, the jury might reasonably have found these facts: On September 23, 1935, the defendant the Liggett Drug Company, Inc. operated a drug store on the southwest corner of Main street and Fairfield avenue in Bridgeport with an entrance on Main street and another on Fairfield avenue about 40 feet westerly from Main street. Just westerly from the Fairfield avenue entrance and about 11 inches from the westerly side of that entrance, there was a hatchway opening from the sidewalk into the cellar of the store. There were two doors in the hatchway each 32 1/2 inches wide. These were set in a steel frame flush with the sidewalk, one on each side of the frame opening up crosswise of the sidewalk. The southerly edge of the frame was adjacent to the side of the building and the doors and frame extended out from the building across the sidewalk 62 inches. The sidewalk at that point was 8 feet wide. This hatchway was used by the Liggett Drug Company in receiving goods into the cellar of its store and was located on the sidewalk at the busiest intersection of Bridgeport. At the time of the plaintiff's injury, about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, a truck belonging to the defendants the Yantic Grain & Products Company and the Liquor Products Company, Inc., was parked with its rear end about opposite the hatchway. An agent of these defendants was discharging a shipment of liquor in wooden cases. A shipping clerk of the defendant the Liggett Drug Company was in the basement at the foot of the hatchway to receive the cases as they were lowered into the cellar. There were several cases piled on the sidewalk, leaving a space between the cases and the side of the building for persons to pass. The plaintiff, who had gone into the store to leave a suitcase for safekeeping at the invitation of the Liggett Drug Company, came out of the Fairfield avenue door, saw the the boxes piled on the sidewalk and the iron doors of the hatchway flush with the walk. She took about two steps, intending to pass between the boxes and the building, and as she stepped upon the easterly door of the hatchway the westerly door was opened without warning and she struck the edge of the door, her abdomen came in contact with it, and she received the injuries complained of. The agent of the defendants the Yantic Grain & Products Company and the Liquor Products Company, Inc., who was discharging the merchandise into the cellar through the hatchway, had without warning opened the westerly door as the plaintiff was in the...