Martin v. Angel City Baseball Assn.

WILLIS, J., pro tem.

Appellant brings this appeal from a judgment for damages for injuries to respondent resulting from alleged negligence of appellant, and from an order denying a.judgment in favor of appellant notwithstanding the verdict of the jury.

As an invitee, respondent attended a baseball game at Wrigley Field, maintained and operated by appellant as a place of public entertainment, and in departing from the grandstand erected and maintained thereon by appellant she fell down a stairway, suffering serious injuries. From photographs and testimony it appears that the stairway, where the accident happened, was one of eleven, each about eight feet wide and containing about fifteen steps. At the top of this stairway, on each side on the aisle level, there was the top or end of a supporting beam, two and one-half inches wide, rising three and a quarter inches above the floor of the aisle, set back one-half inch from the line of the aisle wall into the stairway head and located two and seven-eighths inches from the stair wall. Respondent alleged that such construction constituted an unsafe condition, and that while she was in the act of turning to the left from the aisle to descend the stairway she caught or tripped her foot against this projecting beam end, causing her to fall down the length of the stairway.

The case was tried before a jury, and at the close of plaintiff’s evidence motion for nonsuit was made, but ruling thereon reserved, and the record fails to disclose any subsequent order thereon. At the close of the trial defendant moved for a directed verdict in its favor. This was denied; and after verdict was entered in plaintiff's favor defendant

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moved for entry of judgment in its favor notwithstanding the verdict. This motion was also denied.

These rulings are assigned as error on the ground that no negligence of defendant was shown and that contributory negligence of plaintiff was established by the evidence. We have examined the record in the light of the briefs and find therein presented a real and substantial conflict on the question of negligence of defendant in respect to the maintenance of the stairhead with the above described projecting beam ends, and on the question in respect to the .manner in which the accident happened, and to respondent’s conduct at the time of the accident. These conflicts were resolved by the jury in respondent’s favor, and under the familiar rule this court is bound thereby, questions of law only being within the jurisdiction of our appellate courts. Nor may this rule be avoided herein on appellant’s claim that respondent’s version of the accident was so inherently improbable as to be unworthy of belief. Her testimony as to how the accident happened is quite reasonable, and, if true and accepted, clearly established the fact that she caught or tripped her foot on the beam end as she turned to descend the stairway, causing her to fall, without fault on her part, there being no evidence that she knew the projection was where it was or that she acted otherwise than as a person of ordinary care and prudence would act under similar circumstances. The evidence affecting appellant’s duty to exercise ordinary care in keeping its stairways and aisles in a reasonably safe condition was such that neither the trial court nor this court on appeal could say as a matter of law that appellant had performed its duty in that respect. It is clear to us that the case was such that the trial court was required to submit the same to the jury.