Stahlberg v. Moe
| Decision Date | 14 March 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 41411,41411 |
| Citation | 166 N.W.2d 340,283 Minn. 78 |
| Parties | Mildred E. STAHLBERG, Respondent, v. James A. MOE and James R. Lang, dba Jim and Frank's Beauty Salon, Defendants and 3rd Party Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. WELLA CORPORATION, et al., Third-Party Defendants. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Where cross-examination of the sole medical expert established a possible cause of plaintiff's condition which would involve no negligence on the part of defendants, a directed verdict in favor of plaintiff on the issue of liability cannot be sustained.
2. Where there is insufficient evidence to direct a verdict for defendants and it is possible that plaintiff can establish the requisite causal connection in a second trial, the case must be remanded for a new trial.
Stringer, Donnelly & Sharood, and Charles A. Flinn, Jr., St. Paul, for appellants.
Silver & Ryan, St. Paul, for respondent.
Heard before KNUTSON, C.J., and NELSON, SHERAN, PETERSON, and FRANK T. GALLAGHER, JJ.
This is an appeal from an order of the district court denying defendants' motion for a new trial and from the judgment entered in favor of plaintiff.
About 10:30 a.m. March 11, 1964, plaintiff, Mildred E. Stahlberg, entered Jim and Frank's Beauty Salon, owned and operated by defendants, James A. Moe and James R. Lang, in White Bear Lake, to obtain a shampoo, haircut, cold-wave permanent, and tint rinse for her hair. She had patronized the shop since the fall of 1963 and defendants' records showed she had received a permanent there in December 1963. Plaintiff specified the treatment she wished to receive but made no request for a particular brand or type of solution, simply indicating which of the several price categories she wished. Defendant Lang, who performed the work, chose the solutions accordingly.
Plaintiff left the shop about 3 hours later. Except for having requested that the hair drier be turned down, she had made no complaints concerning the manner in which the work was done and was satisfied with the appearance of her hair. Approximately 2 hours after her departure she developed itching and burning sensations on her face and head, and both became extremely red in color. She also developed a headache, some watering of the eyes, and nausea. She contacted the beauty shop and was told she could apply cold cream that had no alcoholic content and that she should call back in the morning. She had no cold cream so she applied vaseline instead. After a sleepless night, due to the headache and burning sensation, she called the shop the next morning and was told to come in at noon. Lang examined plaintiff's scalp and noticed red spots on the crown and back. He attempted to wash her hair and put some curlers in it, but she was unable to stand having her head touched. Lang then advised her to see a doctor.
Plaintiff consulted a Dr. Wedes on two separate occasions. He suggested she consult a specialist, so she contacted Dr. Francis W. Lynch, a specialist in dermatology, who first saw her on March 18, 1964. He said she told him she had had a permanent wave and tint about a week earlier and that about 2 hours after the procedure she had noticed itching, redness, and scaling. After she had further described her experiences, Dr. Lynch examined her and found redness and slight swelling of the central and anterior portions of her scalp, with less severe and less extensive involvement of the scalp near the nape of the neck. He formed the opinion she was suffering from contact dermatitis caused by one or another of the solutions applied in the course of the permanent waving and tinting during her treatment at the beauty shop on March 11. She continued to receive treatment from Dr. Lynch who, prior to the trial, last saw her on February 17, 1967. During the course of treatment, comprising some 26 office calls and 6 or 8 changes in medication, the acute stage of the dermatitis, which had involved sores on her head that scabbed over and were extremely painful, subsided. By July 16, 1964, the condition consisted of diffused scaling, thickening of the skin, and itching. On September 10, 1964, there remained three scaling, itching plaques a half inch to an inch in diameter. In addition, there developed in the central portion of the scalp a shiny, taut, hairless area about three inches in diameter. Although the size of the plaques and the amount of scaling varied from time to time, there was still some slight scaling present at the last examination on February 17, 1967.
Plaintiff remained away from her job as receptionist and switchboard operator at the Hastings State Hospital from March 11, the date of the permanent, until April 16, 1964. When she returned, the headset she was required to wear at the switchboard caused her discomfort. The sores and scaling on her scalp were visible at a distance of 5 to 10 feet. Plaintiff said that she was uncomfortable all the time and subject to constant itching; that she was embarrassed at the condition of her hair, but was unable to have it dressed or do anything with it; and that her job was such that she was required to be in plain view of anyone entering the main lobby of the hospital. She retired about Christmas of 1965, although she claims she would have continued working had it not been for the nervousness and embarrassment she experienced due to the condition of her scalp and hair.
Plaintiff brings this action to recover from the owners of the beauty shop, alleging they were negligent in the application to her hair and scalp of the products selected by them. By their answer defendants denied negligence and claimed that if plaintiff sustained injury it was due either to the acts of corporations over which they had no control or to plaintiff's contributory negligence or assumption of risk. Defendants joined as third-party defendants Wella Corporation and Turner Hall Corporation, manufacturers of the permanent-waving solution and tint applied to plaintiff's hair.
Following trial before a jury the court granted a directed verdict in favor of the third-party defendants and a directed verdict in favor of plaintiff against defendants Moe and Lang on the issue of liability only. The issue of damages was submitted to the jury under instructions which permitted it to include future damages in the recovery awarded. The jury set plaintiff's damages at $4,130 and judgment was entered on the verdict. It is from that judgment and the denial of their motion for a new trial that defendants appeal.
Defendants raise two issues: (1) Whether the evidence justified the trial court in concluding that defendants were negligent as a matter of law and that their negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries; and (2) whether the court erred in allowing the jury to consider an award of future damages.
As is apparent, each of these issues involved the consideration of the evidence introduced at trial and its sufficiency to support the conclusions reached by the trial court.
From the record it appears that the choice and use of the solutions were exclusively in the hands of defendants; that they were aware of the potentially dangerous character of the solutions; that they had no independent knowledge of the chemical nature of the solutions, had made no attempt to secure such knowledge, and, therefore, had to rely on the instructions of the manufacturers as to their proper use; that defendant Lang did not read the manufacturers' instructions immediately prior to applying the solutions to plaintiff's scalp and deviated from the prescribed method of application of the permanent wave, the neutralizer, and the tint rinse; that plaintiff had a prolonged history of continuing beauty parlor treatments without any adverse reactions and no...
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...expert testimony that the actions taken by the defendant could have caused the alleged damage to the plaintiff's hair. Stahlberg v. Moe, 283 Minn. 78, 83, 166 N.W.2d 340 (1969) (reversing directed verdict for plaintiff but remanding for a new trial where “the cross-examination of the doctor......
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