Stevens v. Bow Mills Methodist Church, No. 6161

• Decision Date: 02 November 1971
• Docket Number: No. 6161
• Citation: 111 N.H. 340,283 A.2d 488
• Parties: Ellen F. STEVENS et al. v. BOW MILLS METHODIST CHURCH.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

Page 488

283 A.2d 488

111 N.H. 340

Ellen F. STEVENS et al. v. BOW MILLS METHODIST CHURCH.

No. 6161.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

Nov. 2, 1971.

Sulloway, Hollis, Godfrey & Soden, and Martin L. Gross, and John C. Ransmeier, Concord, for plaintiffs.

Hall, Morse, Gallagher & Anderson, Concord (G. Wells Anderson, Concord), for defendant.

GRIFFITH, Justice.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained in a fall by Ellen F. Stevens on premises of the defendant on April 20, 1965, with a companion action for consequential damages brought by her husband Shirley A. Stevens. There was a trial by jury and verdict for the plaintiffs. The Trial Court (Loughlin, J.) reserved and transferred defendant's exceptions including those to the denial of its motions for nonsuit and directed verdict.

Ellen F. Stevens was president of the Women's Society of Christian Service, a regular organization of the defendant church. On the evening of April 20, 1965, the society held a meeting at which they entertained guests from other churches. The Youth Fellowship, another regular organization of the church, had been asked to put on a skit for the entertainment of the society and their guests. Mrs. Lillian Tucker who was the adult advisor and supervisor of the Youth Fellowship was present.

The program on that evening consisted of a short business meeting followed by the Youth Fellowship skit and refreshments. Mrs. Stevens arrived at the church sometime prior to the meeting to assist in arrangements. She helped carry a folding table from the dining room through a room called an overflow room into the church proper. There it was set up between the alter rail and the first pew for use of the officers of the society during the business meeting.

The members of the Youth Fellowship had brought for use in the skit a rough wooden cross about six feet in length which was made of logs some four or five inches in diameter. This was observed by Mrs. Stevens in the church proper early in the evening and upon inquiry she was told the Youth Fellowship was going to use it in their skit. After setting up the table she went to the front of the church to greet arriving guests and when she returned for the business meeting the cross was gone from the church proper. Mrs. Stevens conducted the business meeting and at its conclusion Mrs. Stevens and a Mrs. French picked the table up to move it out of the area where the skit would take place. Mrs. Stevens moved backward into the overflow room and when she was some four or five feet into the room fell backward over the cross sustaining the injuries complained of.

The exact size of the overflow room does not appear in the evidence but it was seen by the jury in a view. There was testimony that it contained folding chairs and a piano on the side of the room and was used as a passageway from the dining room into the church. There was also evidence from which a jury could find that the area where the cross lay was always kept clear for use as a passageway.

Defendant excepted to the trial court's ruling that the status of the plaintiff was that of invitee. In Dowd v. Portsmouth Hospital, 105 N.H. 53, 193 A.2d 788 (1963), this court adopted the rule of Restatement (Second) of Torts then in tentative draft. As finally adopted it provided that an invitee might be either a business visitor or a public invitee. 'A public invitee is a person who is invited to enter or remain on land as a member of the public for a purpose for which the land is held open to the public.' Restatement (Second) of Torts s. 332(2) (1965). In the present case it was undisputed that Ellen F. Stevens was attending a meeting of a church organization in the church. This was the purpose for which the church was held open to the public and the trial court correctly ruled her an invitee. Price v. Central Assembly of God, 144 Colo. 297, 356 P.2d 240 (1960); De Mello v. St. Thomas The Apostle Church Corp., 91 R.I. 476, 165 A.2d 500 (1960); Manning v. Bishop of Marquette, 345 Mich. 130, 76 N.W.2d 75 (1956); Annot., 80 A.L.R.2d 806 (1961).

The evidence here permitted a finding by the...