Parkade Corp. v. Chehock

• Decision Date: 25 June 1957
• Docket Number: No. 37538,37538
• Citation: 312 P.2d 932
• Parties: PARKADE CORPORATION, Plaintiff in Error, v. Lowell B. CHEHOCK, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 932

312 P.2d 932

1957 OK 151

PARKADE CORPORATION, Plaintiff in Error, v. Lowell B. CHEHOCK, Defendant in Error.

No. 37538.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

June 25, 1957.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. The operator of a public parking lot as bailee for hire for the parking of automobiles for customers must exercise due care to return bailed property in as good condition as when received.

2. In an action for damages sustained when automobile left by owner for a consideration with defendant operator of parking lot was returned to owner in a damaged condition, which damage defendant claimed was result of failure of power brakes and not by defendant operator's negligence or failure to use ordinary care in guarding against damage to the owner's car, evidence justified judgment for owner on ground that defendant did not exercise due care to return bailed property in as good condition as when received.

3. The incorporation of the petition and answer in the court's instructions is not prejudicial error, where in other portions of the instructions the issues are clearly stated.

4. All the instructions should be considered together. If, when considered as a whole, they state the law correctly, and without conflict, this is sufficient, even though one or more standing alone might be incomplete.

Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas, Tulsa County; Dale J. Briggs, judge.

Action by bailor against bailee for damages to bailor's automobile allegedly caused by bailee's failure to exercise due care to return bailed property in as good condition as when received. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Sanders & McElroy, Tulsa, for plaintiff in error.

Wm. P. Huckin, Jr., Dickson M. Saunders, Doerner, Rinehart & Stuart, Tulsa, for defendant in error.

JOHNSON, Justice.

Parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

Plaintiff, Lowell B. Chehock, brought an action against the Parkade Corporation for breach of contract of bailment for hire. The trial resulted in a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff, and the trial court rendered judgment accordingly, resulting in this appeal.

The facts upon which this action is based are substantially as follows: The defendant operates a parking garage in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The plaintiff stored his automobile in the defendant's parking garage, for which he was charged a fee. Doyle Hayes, an employee of defendant, went to the ninth floor level to get a car for another customer. The plaintiff's car was parked in front of the customer's car. Hayes moved plaintiff's car so as to get the other car out. The attendant testified that he drove the plaintiff's car four or five miles an hour to park on the other side of the aisle, and when he applied the power brakes to the plaintiff's car they failed to operate, and the car jumped over a 6-inch vertical curb and became lodged between the ceiling and a curb of another level. There is now no question about the resulting damages. However, it was shown that the emergency brakes were in good mechanical condition but were admittedly not used by the attendant. It was also shown that the car was driven only 32 feet forward, yet it was driven with such force that it jumped over a 6-inch vertical curb, and in striking the curb bounced so high that the hood ornament was knocked down into the car when the hood struck the top of the concrete roof. The defendant's manager admitted on cross-examination that in the normal course of operation cars would not go over the 6-inch curb.

Defendant presents error under three propositions.

It is first contended that '(T)he court erred in failing to hold that in an action by a bailor against a bailee for damage to an automobile during bailment when the bailor fails to introduce and evidence establishing negligence of...