Tetrault v. Ghibellini

Decision Date06 June 1944
Citation55 N.E.2d 956,316 Mass. 477
PartiesLUCIEN L. TETRAULT v. FRED M. GHIBELLINI.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

May 3, 1944.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., QUA, RONAN & WILKINS, JJ.

Negligence, Invited person, Automobile service station, Contributory.

One, who entered the office of an automobile service station to make a purchase of automobile accessories on sale there and, upon asking if there was a "public rest room," was directed by an attendant to a rest room maintained in the station for the use of its customers, might properly be found to have been an invitee of the proprietor of the station in following the directions and seeking the rest room.

Evidence of the circumstances in which an invitee in an automobile service station, in following directions of an attendant to go "straight ahead" to find a rest room, entered an unlighted lubrication room and there, after taking a few steps in the dark, was injured when he fell into a grease pit instead of entering the rest room, which was located near the door of the lubrication room but not "straight ahead," warranted a finding of negligence of the attendant toward him in giving misleading directions and also in not warning him of his danger; and did not require a ruling that he was guilty of contributory negligence.

TORT. Writ in the Superior Court dated February 21, 1941. The action was tried before Goldberg, J.

W. W. Jump, for the defendant.

J. J. Kelleher, (R.

E. MacDonald with him,) for the plaintiff.

WILKINS, J. This is an action of tort for personal injuries sustained by falling into a grease pit in the defendant's automobile service station. The jury found for the plaintiff, and the defendant's exception to the denial of his motion for a directed verdict raises the questions whether there was evidence of the defendant's negligence and whether as matter of law the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care.

The evidence tended to show the following: On June 28, 1940, after 9 P.M. the plaintiff entered the front door of the office of the defendant's service station, where automobile accessories were for sale, in order to make a purchase. "The attendant was back of the counter and seemed to be busy with papers and did not pay any attention to him, so he looked around, and at the same moment asked him if he had a public rest room, and the attendant told him to go straight ahead which he did. The direction given him was through a door partly open, an unlighted room." In this room he "made two or three steps and reached over his head for a light and fell into the grease pit." There was a carpet the width of the front door which ran directly from the front door in a straight line to the "lube-room" door and, as appears from photographs admitted in evidence, off to the right from that carpet just before reaching the "lube-room" door there was another carpet leading at slightly more than a right angle about "three steps" to the rest room. After the attendant said "Straight ahead," the plaintiff walked approximately twelve feet in the office, which was lighted. He "went in the direction that was a passageway that led straight ahead. . . . Before he came to a door that was directly ahead of him as he was walking, he did not look to his right . . . because he complied with the attendant's directions." The unlighted room "seemed very dark to him" coming from the "well lighted" office. "When he reached for the light over his head he felt what was in front of him like a large object was a toilet bowl." "Only when he walked in could he see that the room it led into was dark. When he pushed the door open, he could see it was dark. When he pushed the door open and took a step inside this room, he knew it was in darkness. Asked if it was pitch blackness, just pitch dark, the plaintiff answered dark enough, like he said, coming from a bright room into that room. Asked if it was pitch black he said enough to obstruct vision. He couldn't see a thing; he didn't hesitate when he took the first step into the room. When he took the first step, he stepped into darkness, and it did not occur to him to call the attendant and ask where this man's room was. When he took the second step, he figured he was going to put his foot on the floor. Asked, `But you didn't know did you? You couldn't see what you were putting it on?' He replied, `No, I just took it for granted I was in a rest room.' He did not call to the attendant for directions. When he took the third step, he fell into the pit. He was not groping in the dark. From the time that he stood in front of the door, and as he pushed it open and walked in those two or three steps, he could not see a thing in that room; he knew and appreciated he was walking in darkness. After entering the room and before he fell he did see something like a dark object in front of him." The rest room was "maintained for the benefit of people who might come on the premises to buy things, for the benefit of the general public, for anybody who might come there to use the toilet."

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