Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Robinson
| Decision Date | 04 May 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. A-5025,A-5025 |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
| Parties | SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Jimmie M. ROBINSON, Respondent. |
Orgain, Bell & Tucker, Beaumont, for petitioner.
Watson & Sanders, Alto V. Watson, D. F. Sanders, and Bill J. Sanders, Beaumont, for respondent.
Respondent Robinson sued Sears, Roebuck & Company, hereinafter called Sears, petitioner, for damages for personal injuries suffered by him when he slipped on the floor of Sears' warehouse while working as its employee. Upon jury findings favorable to Robinson, the trial court entered judgment in his favor. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed that judgment and remanded the cause for a new trial. 272 S.W.2d 549.
Sears' only point of error is that the Court of Civil Appeals erred in not holding that the trial court erred 'in submitting the case to the jury, because there was no evidence to raise any issue of negligence as against this defendant by reason of the open, obvious and known conditions and dangers.' Sears says this point presents only one question for review: Whether Robinson made out a case of breach of duty by Sears.
Robinson was an experienced employee of Sears, working in its warehouse. The day before he was injured he helped stack some cans of oil. When he went to work the next day he saw a large pool of oil on the floor of the warehouse, which appeared to have seeped out of the cans which he had helped to stack. He made no complaint or report of this condition to his foreman or anybody in authority at the warehouse. He knew the oil was slippery on the cement floor. Around noon and while he was helping other employees to move a reconditioned automobile motor Robinson stepped in the oil, slipped and hurt his back.
Although eligible, Sears had no compensation insurance. This rendered defenses of contributory negligence and assumed risk unavailable; nevertheless, as Sears insists, before Robinson can recover he must establish that it was guilty of negligence.
Sears' theory is that the record establishes as a matter of law that the dangerous condition of the floor on which respondent slipped and fell was open and obvious and the respondent knew or should have known of such condition and realized, or should have realized, the danger thereof. This being true, it is urged that the petitioner breached no duty it owed to respondent to warn him of the condition and its dangers, or otherwise to take precautions to protect him therefrom.
Sears admits that the statute has abolished the defense of assumed risk in this type of case; but, relying on McKee v. Patterson, Tex.Sup., 271 S.W.2d 391, it asserts that the question is not one of assumption of risk but one of no breach of duty as a separate concept for denying liability.
In the master and servant field of law the courts have developed two theories for denying liability where the unsafe condition of the premises or unsafe condition of tools and appliances furnished by the master were open and obvious to the servant and the dangers therein were appreciated by him. One was that the master owed no duty to the servant to protect him from the dangers of open and obvious conditions, and the other was that the servant assumed the risk of dangers in such conditions. Under the first theory the burden would naturally fall on the servant to prove the existence of the duty as a part of his cause of action. Under the second theory it was recognized that when the dangerous premises or instrumentalities were furnished, the master had breached his duty to furnish a reasonably safe place to work or reasonably safe tools, thereby creating a cause of action against which he could defend by showing that the servant had assumed the risk of the dangers incident thereto. Section 1291, Labatt on Master and Servant, makes it clear that the author prefers to treat the problem as one of defense rather than a breach of duty.
We think the decisions in Texas will show, without exception, that the courts of this State adopted the second theory: that the duty of the master was breached in failing to furnish a safe place to work or safe tools to work with, but that he could defend against the servant's suit by showing that the dangers of the conditions or tools were known to the servant; and that therefore he had assumed the risk. Illustrative of the cases which predicated nonliability upon the defensive theory of assumption of risk are the following: Missouri, Pac. Ry. Co. v. Somers, 78 Tex. 439, 14 S.W. 779; Bonnet v. Galveston H. & S. A. Ry. Co., 89 Tex. 72, 76, 33 S.W. 334; Poindexter v. Receivers of Kirby Lumber Co., 101 Tex. 322, 107 S.W. 42; St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas v. Hynson, 101 Tex. 543, 546, 109 S.W. 929; Patton v. Dallas Gas Co., 108 Tex. 321, 192 S.W. 1060. It was with the law in Texas in this attitude that the Legislature passed the Workmen's Compensation Act, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306, and abolished the defense of assumption of risk.
The same rule in the landowner-invitee field of the law...
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