John v. B.B. McGinnis Co., Inc.

THOMPSON, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered in favor of plaintiffs allowing damages for personal injuries sustained by Mrs. John who fell into an opening in the floor of defendant’s store when a trapdoor gave way.

The facts surrounding the accident are clear and uncontradicted. The plaintiff, Lenna John, entered defendant’s store in Merced on the morning of February 9, 1938, to purchase a pair of house slippers. The manager led her back into the rear room where the shoes were kept for sale. She stood at the end of a table upon which he was displaying the slippers. Behind her there was an opening in the floor, between two joists, which was covered by a trapdoor fitting into the flooring flush with the surface. The door was not attached to the floor by means of hinges or otherwise. She had not been informed of this door and knew nothing of it. In examining the slippers, she stepped backward upon this trapdoor, which gave way beneath her weight, tilted up and caused her to fall through the opening. She was thereby injured quite seriously.

The only evidence of the previous use of that trapdoor was furnished by a plumber who testified that he raised the door and passed through the hole in the floor one week before the date of the accident, to reach the water pipes in the basement which he was repairing. He said he removed the door which rested upon the joist on either side, and properly replaced it when he came from the basement. The manager of the store knew of the trapdoor but failed to warn Mrs. John of that danger.

Plaintiffs did not furnish proof of the cause of the tilting of the trapdoor. Mrs. John’s attention had not been called to it, and she did not know what caused the door to slip from

[178]

its proper position. The defendant offered no explanation of the cause of the accident.

The appellant contends there is a failure to prove negligence on the part of the defendant; that the doctrine of

res ipsa loquitur

is not applicable, and that the negligence, if any, of the subcontractor who was doing the plumbing will not subject the defendant to liability.