Patterson v. Sayers

• Decision Date: 16 March 1955
• Docket Number: No. 39499,39499
• Citation: 78 So.2d 467,223 Miss. 444
• Parties: Marie L. PATTERSON v. Ralph J. SAYERS, d/b/a The Concord Hotel.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 467

78 So.2d 467

223 Miss. 444

Marie L. PATTERSON v. Ralph J. SAYERS, d/b/a The Concord Hotel.

No. 39499.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 16, 1955.

L. C. Gwin, Natchez, for appellant.

Brandon, Brandon, Hornsby & Handy, Natchez, for appellee.

ROBERDS, Presiding Justice.

Mrs. Patterson brought this action against Mr. Sayers to recover money damage for injuries she claims to have received when she fell in the hotel lobby of the Concord Hotel in Natchez, Mississippi, which fall, she avers, was the result of the failure of Mr. Sayers, operator of the Hotel, to use reasonable diligence to maintain a reasonably safe place for passage through that lobby. When Mrs. Patterson rested her case the learned trial judge instructed the jury to return a verdict for Mr. Sayers, which was done, and judgment was entered accordingly. From that action Mrs. Patterson appeals here.

The questions involved are: (1) the character of the relation which existed between the parties; and (2) the duty owing by Mr. Sayers to Mrs. Patterson. Mrs. Patterson says the testimony would have justified the finding by the jury that she was an invitee on the Hotel premises and that Sayers owed her the duty to use ordinary care to have the premises in a reasonably safe condition for use by her and that Sayers violated his duty in that respect, resulting in her injury.

This is a summary of the testimony on the stated questions. Mrs. Patterson testified that on October 2, 1951, the date of her injury, she resided in Natchez, Mississippi. She was fifty-six years of age. She was an employee of the Mississippi Automobile Club, at Natchez, an affiliate of 'AAA'. Her employer furnished to its members various and useful travel information, as to hotels, roads, eating places, legal services, etc. Mr. Sayers was a member of the Natchez branch. Indeed, he was the organizer thereof. He became a member in 1948 and had been a member since that time. Mrs. Patterson, in her capacity as an employee, had sent a number of guests to the Concord Hotel. However, on the day of her accident Mr. Sayers had not paid his renewal membership, although he had in his possession his credentials and was yet a member. She called Mr. Sayers about his renewal membership and he told her to come to see him that afternoon at his office, which was in the lobby of the Concord Hotel, then being operated by him. Mr. Sayers knew that the business about which she wished to see him was their mutual interest in his MAC membership. At the appointed time she proceeded to Mr. Sayers' office.

The Concord Hotel faces west on South Commerce Street. There is a step-up of about six inches as one enters the Hotel from the street. She opened the Hotel door, and, just as she got inside, she started slipping on the floor; she half caught herself and slipped again and fell to the floor, receiving severe injuries. The spot where she slipped and fell looked considerably darker than the adjoining floor of the lobby. It had a dull appearance. That covered a space of some three by four feet. The heel of her shoe made an imprint in the substance on the floor. The floor where she fell appeared not to be properly buffed. Mrs. Myrtle Taylor, an employee of Sayers at the telephone and desk in the lobby of the Hotel, ran to her and gave aid. She was helped to her feet and then seated. Mr. Sayers came out of his office. They went back into the office for about five minutes. Mr. Sayers gave her a check for his MAC membership and assisted her in leaving his office and the Hotel, and offered to carry her home or to a doctor in his automobile. She suffered severe injuries to her head, spine, and ankle. A number of doctors examined and attended her and the severity of her injuries were attested by these doctors, whose testimony we deem it unnecessary to set out in view of the questions under consideration.

Mrs. Myrtle Taylor testified that at that time she was employed by Mr. Sayers. Her duties were to receive guests at the hotel and operate the telephone switchboard. Mr. Sayers' office was a few feet from her desk. To get to his office it was necessary to come into the hotel and go across the lobby. She was on duty when Mrs. Patterson fell. She was behind the registration desk. She saw Mrs. Patterson enter the front door and fall. This is her description of the fall: 'Well, she just stepped in the door with her hand on the door and she helt, it, but her foot slipped and she kept holding to the door for a second, I would say, and she was slipping, so she let go of the door and she just slipped for two or three feet and she kind of straightened and may be made a step and she slipped again and fell.' She rushed to Mrs. Patterson and asisted her in getting up. Mrs. Patterson sat on a settee in the lobby for a few moments. Her ankle was swelling rather badly and she was in much pain. In explaining the condition of the floor this witness said Mrs. Patterson skidded about three feet, then straightened up and then skidded again. The heel of Mrs. Patterson's shoe left two skid marks--one about three feet; then she straightened up and then skidded again. She said 'There was a little mark in two different places about as wide as a matchstick, not as wide as the heel of a shoe. There were two dull spots in the two places she slipped.' On cross-examination she said the dull place where Mrs. Patterson slipped was about two and a half by three feet, and the mark made on the floor was about the size of a thumbnail. The first heel mark started about the first step inside the hotel door; the second started about two feet further to the inside of the lobby. The length of the two marks together, she said, was about five or six feet. In another place she said the dull spot on the floor, where Mrs. Patterson slipped, was some two to two and a half feet across. She said it had been some two weeks since the floor was waxed, but that it was watermopped twice a day--about 8:30 in the morning and at 6:30 in the evening. The day of the accident it had been mopped in the morning but not in the evening. Mr. Sayers came out of his office with Mrs. Patterson and asked to take her to a doctor but she said she had her automobile and could make it. Witness had been working at the Hotel for thirteen months. She said many people had passed through the lobby since it had been waxed. However, she also said that she herself had once slipped on the lobby floor and almost fallen.

Mrs. Virginia Dallas had preceded Mrs. Taylor as an employee of Mr. Sayers. They did the same kind of work. Mrs. Dallas testified she worked at the Concord Hotel about a year; left to work for Mr. Sayers at another place and then came back to the Concord. She said the lobby floor was composed of asphalt tile. The Hotel changed porters often. They were not required to have any special...