Memco Stores, Inc. v. Yeatman

This is a defendant’s appeal from a judgment awarding the plaintiff $187,000 in damages in a slip-and-fall case. The defendant assigns error to the jury instructions and to the admission of evidence of a witness’s extra-judicial statements. The defendant maintains that, absent such evidence, the plaintiff failed to prove primary negligence. Contributory negligence and the quantum of the verdict are not in issue on appeal.

Sometime between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on June 9, 1979, plaintiff Barbara W. Yeatman and her young daughters, Lisa and Wanda, entered a store operated by defendant Memco…