Regedahl v. Safeway Stores, Inc.
| Decision Date | 20 March 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 11151,11151 |
| Parties | Ingvall REGEDAHL, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. SAFEWAY STORES, INC., Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Arnold Huppert, Jr., Livingston, Lyman H. Bennett, Jr. (argued), Bozeman, for appellant.
Drysdale & Sabo, Douglas R. Drysdale (argued), Bozeman, for respondent.
This is an appeal from a judgment and verdict of $22,060.00 awarded for personal injuries arising out of a slip and fall in defendant's grocery store. The case was tried February 9, 1966, before the Honorable Jack D. Shanstrom, Judge of the Sixth Judicial District. Error is specified in the instructions given and refused and for failure to grant defendant's motions for directed verdict, and for judgment.
Respondent, Ingvall Regedahl, arrived at appellant's grocery store at about 8:00 A. M., September 29, 1961, in the course of his ordinary duties of delivering milk. He followed the practice normal for himself and other delivery men of using the delivery door at the back of the grocery store building. The Store's delivery door opened onto a ramp on the inside which was about nine feet long, five feet wide and descended down into the store at a slope of fifteen to eighteen degrees. The walk-in cooler which was to be stocked with milk had a door located approximately twelve feet beyond the lower end of the ramp. Respondent walked directly into the cooler via the back door and the ramp to determine the amount of milk required to be stocked. He returned to his delivery truck by the same route taking with him a hand cart belonging to the store. Respondent slipped at the top of the ramp as he attempted to re-enter the store and fell with his load of milk landing on top of him and was injured.
The weather at the time was bright and clear and there was a skiff of new dry snow which had fallen the previous night. The ramp in question was periodically coated with an abrasive substance to increase traction but there was conflicting evidence as to the amount of abrasive remaining at the time of the accident.
Testimony given at the trial placed the store manager, James S. Ricci, at the foot of the ramp in front of the cooler door checking deliveries at the time of the injury. Other testimony showed that Edward M. Connelley, Jr., another dairy deliveryman, had slipped on the ramp just prior to the time the respondent slipped and fell and had informed Mr. Ricci that the ramp was slippery.
The complaint alleged that the ramp was in a dangerous condition in that it was poorly lit, excessively steep, worn slick, smooth and covered with a slippery substance. It was further alleged that the defendant gave the plaintiff no warning of the dangerous condition.
Most of appellant's assignments of error in the instructions given and refused can be consolidated into the single legal question of the duty of the defendant-appellant, Safeway Stores, Inc., (hereinafter called Safeway). The remaining assignments of error deal with instructions which were refused because their substance was contained in other instructions given or because they were so clearly improper that they raise no questions of law which merit discussion herein.
The instruction given at the trial relating to the duty owed by Safeway was Montana Jury Instruction Guide (MJIG) instruction 120.4 pertaining to invitees. The relevant portion of MJIG 120.4 which was given as Court's Instruction 24, reads as follows:
'The owner (or occupant) of a place of business who has extended an invitation, express or implied, owes to all invitees who come upon the premises the legal duty to exercise ordinary care under the circumstances to keep the premises in a condition reasonably safe for use by the invitee in every reasonable pursuit of any purpose included within the invitation.
'If there is danger attending the invitee's use of the premises and such danger arises from conditions not readily apparent to the senses of the ordinary person, and if the owner (or occupant) has actual knowledge of such conditions, or if such conditions would have been known to an owner (or occupant) in the exercise of ordinary care under the circumstances, the law then imposes upon the owner (or occupant) the duty to give the invitee reasonable warning of such danger.
Safeway contends that this instruction is contrary to the decisions of this court because it would allow recovery even though the dangerous condition is open and obvious and even though there...
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Richardson v. Corvallis Public School Dist. No. 1
...obvious or actually known." Cereck, 637 P.2d at 511 (citing Rennick, 606 P.2d 1079; Luebeck, 446 P.2d 921; and Regedahl v. Safeway Stores, Inc. (1967), 149 Mont. 229, 425 P.2d 335). More specifically, we pointed out that in prior cases involving injuries caused by icy conditions, we had hel......
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Davis v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
...argues it had no duty to warn unless the conditions which caused Davis' injuries were "hidden or lurking." See Regedahl v. Safeway Stores, Inc. (1967), 149 Mont. 229, 425 P.2d 335. This assertion carries little weight as the given instruction was a correct statement of the law, which fit Da......
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Gunderson v. Nolte
...care to keep the premises in reasonably safe condition and the duty to warn of hidden or lurking dangers. Regedahl v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 149 Mont. 229, 425 P.2d 335. Mr. Justice Doyle, speaking for a unanimous court in Regedahl, succinctly expressed the dual nature of the duty in the fol......
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Demaree v. Safeway Stores, Inc.
...invitees. Callahan v. Buttrey, D.C., 186 F.Supp. 715; Kerns v. F. W. Woolworth Co., 138 Mont. 249, 356 P.2d 127; Regedahl v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 149 Mont. 229, 425 P.2d 335. Additionally, when Instruction No. 6 is read with plaintiff's offered instruction No. 12, which was given as court'......