Jerdon v. Sirulnik
Jerdon v. Sirulnik
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
These are appeals from a judgment entered by the court of common pleas in a negligence action after the court had directed a verdict for the defendants and denied plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial. The circumstances of the accident are summarized by the court below as follows: “The wife-plaintiff had been a domestic employee in the defendants’ home for six days when, in the course of her duties, she slipped and fell on some water at the foot of the basement stairs and was injured. . . . The defendants live in a split level house. The kitchen and laundry are on one floor, the recreation room is in the basement. Plaintiff, returning from another part of the house at about 11:30 a.m., observed water on the floor of the laundry and went to fetch a mop. She flicked on a light, descended the stairs to the recreation room, put both feet on the floor, slipped on some water on it, which she did not see, and fell.
“The recreation room is lighted by windows and three overhead lights and two standing lamps. The wife-plaintiff described the windows as high and not giving much light. Two of the overhead lights and the floor lamps could be switched on only in the basement. The other ceiling light was switched on by the plaintiff at the top of the stairs.”
To make out a case of negligence a plaintiff must prove, inter alia, that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty which was breached. As to the duty that these defendants owed to the wife-plaintiff, the parties agree on the applicability of the rule expressed in Section 492 of the Restatement (2d), Agency: “A master is subject to a duty that care be used either to provide working conditions which are reasonably safe for his servants and subservants, considering the nature of the employment, or to warn them of risks of unsafe conditions which he should realize they may not discover
The theory of plaintiffs is that the defendants were negligent in failing to provide sufficient light for the premises in which the wife-plaintiff performed her duties.
Considering, then, the nature of the wife-plaintiff’s employment as a resident domestic, what evidence was adduced to show the lack of care by defendants in furnishing reasonably safe lighting conditions? What evidence was offered to prove either that the lighting equipment or the arrangement thereof was not “reasonably safe” for working purposes? As we review the record, there was none. Presented in the manner most favorable to plaintiffs, the evidence discloses that the light which the wife-plaintiff was able to switch on from the top of the stairs was located in the center of the recreation room but to the rear and left of persons descending the stairway, so that any direct illumination furnished by that light was blocked by the wife-plaintiff (as it would be by any person) as she descended the stairs. To some extent this light might also have been blocked by the riser in the stairs. Thus, either the wife-plaintiff descending or the riser or both created a shadow at the foot of the stairs thereby concealing the water upon which the wife-plaintiff slipped. The lower court ruled that this evidence in no way established any negligence on the part of defendants, and accordingly directed that the verdict be entered in defendants’ favor. We agree with the lower court.
The line of proof advanced by the plaintiffs shows only how the accident might have occurred — it does not in any way challenge the degree of care exercised by the defendants in having their recreation room lit in
Even assuming that the lighting arrangement constituted an unsafe Avorking condition, the defendants Avould not be held liable to plaintiffs in these circumstances. Under the Restatement rule, the defendants’ duty is either to use care in providing reasonably safe working conditions or to warn the wife-plaintiff of existing unsafe conditions that the defendants realize Avill not be discovered by the exercise of due care. There Avas no reason for defendants to believe that after six
The cases upon which plaintiffs rely in their assertion that there was negligence here for which the defendants are liable are all distinguishable. They either involve situations in which some dangerous defect or separate obstruction
J udgment affirmed.,
Duffy v. Peterson, 386 Pa. 533, 126 A. 2d 413 (1956); Schaff v. Meltzer, 382 Pa. 43, 114 A. 2d 167 (1955) ; Dively v. Penn-Pittsburgh Corporation, 332 Pa. 65, 2 A. 2d 831 (1938) ; Curry v. Atlantic Refining Company, 239 Pa. 302, 86 Atl. 856 (1913) ; Donohue v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 57 Pa. Superior Ct. 251 (1914).
Scurco v. Kart, 377 Pa. 435, 105 A. 2d 170 (1954) ; Stevenson v. Pennsylvania Sports and Enterprises, Inc., 372 Pa. 157, 93 A. 2d 236 (1952) ; Polm v. Hession, 363 Pa. 494, 70 A. 2d 311 (1950) ; Kallman v. Triangle Hotel Co. of Pennsylvania, 357 Pa. 39, 52 A. 2d 900 (1947) ; Kmiotek v. Anast, 350 Pa. 593, 39 A. 2d 923 (1944) ; Cathcart v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 120 Pa. Superior Ct. 531, 183 Atl. 113 (1936).
Hoss v. Nestor Building and Loan Assn., 164 Pa. Superior Ct. 77, 63 A. 2d 435 (1949).
Dissenting Opinion
The plaintiff, Mary Jerdon, was injured when she fell in a pool of water in the defendants’ basement which was lighted in such a manner as to obscure the presence of the offending liquid. The Trial Judge directed a verdict for the defendant and this Court has affirmed the judgment. The Majority Opinion says: “There was no reason for defendants to believe that after six days of residing in defendants’ home and using the stairway numerous times daily in the course of her work, the wife-plaintiff would not have herself become aware of the lighting conditions of the recreation room.”
But this only states part of the case. The plaintiff said that the lighting was inadequate because of the conditions prevailing on the day she fell. She pointed out that the only switch available to one descending the stairs threw on such a feeble illumination that it lighted up only part of the room below. There were additional electric lights in the basement but they could not be turned on until one reached the floor, when, of course it would be too late to help someone who had already measured his length on the floor. Even so, it was not the inadequate lighting of itself which caused the plaintiff’s injuries. It was the poor illumination plus the pool of water, of whose presence the plaintiff was ignorant. She had been a domestic in the defendants’ employ for six days, but nothing happened in those six days to warn her that at any unexpected moment the basement floor would cover with a fluid, which, because of its transparency, would mask its presence.
The inadequate lighting was only one negligent circumstance. The other was the water. Together they formed a vise which crushed the plaintiff and broke her hip.
In Campbell v. Pittsburgh, 155 Pa. Superior Ct. 439, the Superior Court said wisely and justly: “We may therefore take it to be the law that although foreseeability of injury is a controlling factor in determining proximate cause of injury to a plaintiff, it is not restricted to the probability of injury in the precise manner in which the injury occurred. And if injury is foreseeable, a defendant is not necessarily relieved from liability because of other contributing causes if the defendant’s negligence is a proximate cause of the injury. It has long been the law that negligence may be a proximate cause of an injury of which it is not the sole cause.”
I would reverse and send the case back for a jury determination of the factual question involved.
Reference
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- Jerdon, Appellant, v. Sirulnik
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