Quirk v. Siegel-Cooper Co.
New York Supreme Court
Motion on the minutes to set aside a verdict of $15,000 for the plaintiff in an action for personal injuries. The defendant keeps a large department store. A corridor runs through the building, and at each end of it people come in from the street. At regular intervals along one side'of it is a rise of four marble steps up to aisles • or lanes which run thence across a large store floor. Merchandise is displayed and sold on each side of the aisles.
Read the full summary
Motion on the minutes to set aside a verdict of $15,000 for the plaintiff in an action for personal injuries. The defendant keeps a large department store. A corridor runs through the building, and at each end of it people come in from the street. At regular intervals along one side'of it is a rise of four marble steps up to aisles • or lanes which run thence across a large store floor. Merchandise is displayed and sold on each side of the aisles. The plaintiff went up by one of these section steps. She came back by the same or another aisle. She had been there before and was familiar with…
1Opinion of the Court
Gaynor, J.:
I do not see that as matter of law the plaintiff was guilty of negligence' in stepping on the skid. On the contrary, I can see how a careful person could do just that. One coming along in a familiar place sees where the stairs are ahead, and without keeping the eye on them all the while knows when he reaches them, and steps to go down. It is every one’s experience, and I have noticed people in stores just like this meeting familiar stairs. They do not approach them suspiciously but naturally. They know they are there, and just where to step- down without keeping the eye constantly…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Kalfur v. Broadway Ferry & Metropolitan Avenue RailroadAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1898
3Cited by1 opinion
- City of South Omaha v. SutliffeNebraska Supreme Court · 1904