Mrs. Gladys B. White v. Sears, Roebuck and Company, a Corporation

HARRY E. WATKINS, District Judge.

The principal question here is whether the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable in a case where the plaintiff falls when stepping on a slippery foreign substance on the step of an escalator while a customer in defendant’s store. The District Court thought that such doctrine was not applicable in this case, and we agree.

On March 31, 1955, plaintiff was a customer in defendant’s store at Norfolk, Va., and while being transported from the second to the first floor of the store by an escalator provided for the use of customers, she slipped and fell. She…