Davidson v. Long Beach Pleasure Pier Co.

DRAPEAU, J.

Three teen-age girls, plaintiff, her sister, and their friend from Utah, were enjoying one of the Christmas holidays on the strand at Long Beach. They rode on a roller coaster. They went into the House of the Laughing Lady. And then two of them, the plaintiff and the girl from Utah, got tangled up with an amusement device called a tilt-a-whirl.

The tilt-a-whirl was located on an ocean pier belonging to defendant Long Beach Pleasure Pier Company; it was owned by defendant E. C. Velare; and, at the time the girls rode on it, it was operated by the defendant Carmen Tomei. Long Beach Pleasure Pier Company permitted the operation of the tilt-a-whirl on a verbal lease with Mr. Velare, for a rental of 25 per cent of the receipts.

A tilt-a-whirl is a merry-go-round with a college education. It is a circular platform, which revolves like a merry-go-round. But instead of going round and round on a horizontal plane, it goes up and down at the same time it goes round and round. Some of the witnesses said that it undulates. The faster the table revolves the more rapidly it undulates.

Seven two-wheeled, two-passenger cars are affixed with swivels at the front end thereof to this revolving, undulating table. As the table goes round and round and up and down, the cars gyrate on the swivels, right or left, or left or right, haphazardly, like spinning, bobbing corks on a turbulent whirling pool.

The backs of the cars are high enough to shield and to hold the whole body of a rider. Under normal operations the backs of the cars absorb strange gravity pulls and keep passengers from flying off at a tangent.

When a rider seats himself in the ear, a U-shaped safety bar is let down to a horizontal position over his lap. The safety bar is attached to the front of the car at the bottom

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by two cast iron discs rubbing against each other which act as a clutch. While the bar is down, the cars runs freely. If the bar is raised, it sets brakes on the wheels and stops the car.

When the girls got into the ear they were to ride on this occasion, the bar was lowered over their laps, and they were told to hang onto it. Mr. Tomei started a gasoline engine which provided the power. The engine was adjacent to a narrow walkway surrounding the platform. The table commenced to revolve and undulate and the cars to gyrate.