Trask v. Shotwell

• Decision Date: 17 June 1889
• Citation: 42 N.W. 699,41 Minn. 66
• Parties: Albun K. Trask, Administrator, v. Theodore Shotwell and others
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

42 N.W. 699

41 Minn. 66

Albun K. Trask, Administrator, v. Theodore Shotwell and others

Supreme Court of Minnesota

June 17, 1889

Appeal by plaintiff from an order of the district court for Hennepin county, refusing a new trial, the action having been tried before Young, J., and a verdict directed for defendants.

Order affirmed.

Benton & Roberts, for appellant.

Wilson & Lawrence, for respondents.

OPINION

Collins, J.

This is an action brought by the appellant, as administrator, to recover damages for the death of his intestate, one George R Trask, which death, it is alleged, was occasioned through the culpable negligence of defendants in maintaining an unlighted and unguarded elevator shaft upon their premises, into which Trask fell on the morning of November 28, 1887. The defendants were wholesale dry-goods merchants. In the rear of their store was a shipping-room, with an outside door opening upon an alley-way. In one corner of this shipping-room was a small office. The elevator shaft was about 5 feet square, and some 16 feet from the door before mentioned. The shipping-room was used by defendants' employes, out of which to ship goods, and no other persons were allowed in there, except as hereinafter stated. The elevator was used for freighting purposes solely, and no guards were placed about the shaft when the elevator was in use. The plaintiff had purchased goods of defendants, and on the morning in question sent Trask, the deceased, who was his nephew and also in his employ, for them. With him was a team and teamster. Trask and the teamster went to the main entrance of the store, and there received one package of the goods. Trask was then told by a clerk of the respondents to go with his team to the door in the alley, rap upon it, and the shipping-clerk would deliver the balance to him. The clerk who gave these directions testifies positively to this and that he told Trask to wait outside the door. The teamster, who seems to have overheard what was said, and was a witness for plaintiff upon the trial, did not contradict or qualify this testimony, and we must assume that Trask was neither directed, invited, nor induced to enter the room, but was told to rap on the door, and remain outside until the clerk gave him his packages. The teamster drove into the alley, and there found Trask standing in the doorway of the shipping-room. After giving some instructions to the teamster, he stepped into the room, closing the door after him. In a few minutes he was found in a dying condition upon the basement floor, having fallen, evidently, down the elevator shaft, the elevator having gone to an upper floor. He was not seen to fall, and the particulars of the accident are unknown. From the injuries received he very soon afterward died.

There was considerable testimony offered and received as to the condition of the light, from a window and by artificial means, in this shipping-room at the time Trask entered it. That offered by the plaintiff was to the effect that it was a dark and insufficiently lighted room, while the testimony in defendants' behalf tended to show that the room was well lighted, that the elevator shaft was in plain sight, and consequently, in any aspect of the case, Trask was guilty of contributory...