Beatty v. Pilcher

Ed. F. McFaddin, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment based on a jury verdict awarding Mr. and Mrs. Pilcher (appellees) damages because of injuries which she sustained when a section of the seats collapsed at a performance of appellant’s1 circus in El Dorado in 1947.

Mrs. Pilcher, accompanied by her small son, went to the circus as a paying patron; and was assigned to a seat located five rows from the top in the reserved seat section. As other patrons took seats in that section, the platform boards — on which the chairs rested — began to make cracking and popping sounds. Patrons became…