Trembley v. Capital Co.

BRAY, J.

Appeal by plaintiff from a judgment in favor of defendants after an order granting a nonsuit in an action for damages for personal injuries. The sole issue presented is the correctness of the court’s order granting the nonsuit.

[607]

Facts

Having in mind that this court must accept as true all evidence tending to establish plaintiff’s case and reject all which tends to disprove it, and indulge every reasonable inference in favor of plaintiff

(Williamson

v.

Pacific Greyhound Lines,

78 Cal.App.2d 482 [177 P.2d 977]), and that a non-suit is proper where the evidence is of such a character as not to warrant a finding in plaintiff’s favor

(Pacific Nat. Co.

v.

Southwest Finance Co.,

4 Cal.App.2d 326 [40 P.2d 862]), it is necessary to examine the facts in the case to see if there is any evidence, or any reasonable inferences therefrom, which would support a verdict in favor of plaintiff.

Defendant Capital Company operates, and defendant Murphy manages, the Shaw Hotel in San Francisco. On November 1, 1945, plaintiff was a paying guest in room 422, which room he had occupied for a month. Connected with his room there was a private bathroom containing a shower. The spray of the shower leaked constantly over that period, and he had complained about it to the maid almost daily. He could not shut the water completely off. In order to turn it off, plaintiff was required to use more force than was usually necessary to shut off a shower. On the day of the accident, plaintiff used the amount of force he had been accustomed to using under the leaking conditions; the porcelain handle crumbled in his hand, exposing the iron core of the handle, which made a severe gash in his wrist, severing the ulnar nerve and inflicting a serious injury.

Prior to the accident, plaintiff had never observed anything cracked or broken about the porcelain handle. Immediately after the accident, he observed the iron core of the handle. It was covered with rust clear back to the hilt, and there was rust on a part of the hilt that had not been covered with porcelain.