Sparks v. Allen Northridge Market

VALLES, J.

Appeal by plaintiff from a judgment for defendants notwithstanding the verdict in an action for damages for personal injuries.

Defendant Lloyd Allen was the owner of a retail supermarket in Northridge. It is conceded plaintiff was an invitee in the market. The complaint alleged that on May 27, 1957, defendant “negligently, carelessly and unlawfully placed and stacked its merchandise in such manner as to cause the same to fall on and about Plaintiff’s right foot while she was in said market.”

On the day of the accident there were about 30 cartons of root beer stacked at a corner of two aisles. One of the aisles ran east and west; the other, north and south. The cartons were “sort of” wrapped around the corner of the two aisles. They were stacked five high right up from the floor. The floor was cement. Each carton was about 10 inches high, and contained eight bottles filled with root beer. The cartons were of cardboard; they were open; the sides came up 2 or 3 inches ; the front came up about

i inches;

about 6 inches of each of

[697]

the four front bottles were exposed. The cartons had been stacked by a sales-driver of Hires Company at the direction of defendants. The root beer was on display. The display was done once or twice a year. It was “a promotional deal.” Hires root beer is a carbonated drink under high pressure. The customers helped themselves to the root beer in the stacked cartons. When one or more bottles were sold they were replaced.

A rough sketch of the layout, found in respondent’s brief, is reproduced :

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Customers use pushcarts in which to carry their purchases. The pushcarts are up to 18 inches wide. There is a turnover of about 25 pushcarts used by customers each year. They are serviced twice a year. The “public treats them pretty rough.”

Plaintiff Mary Sparks testified: On May 27, 1957, I entered the market, went through a turnstile, took a pushcart, and proceeded easterly down an aisle. I was going to the back to the refrigerator to get some milk. As I was making the turn at the intersection of the east and north aisles, another lady was coming north down the aisle which runs north and south in front of the refrigerator. She was coming toward me on my right from in front of the milk counter, and there were some men putting up a nut display. I wanted to go around the corner. I backed up a ways to make room for the lady coming towards me “to get by with the men standing there with the—displaying the nuts.” I moved backward when I saw her coming. I pulled my cart back. It hit the root beer bottles. There was an explosion. Glass went in and out of my foot. I was pulling the cart back when it struck the root beer bottles. The right-front wheel of the cart hooked on to the cartons. I do not remember whether I had seen the stacks there. I knew the display was there because I had seen it a couple of days before. The egg counter prevented me from seeing the root beer cartons as I approached them. The root beer cartons were stacked on the north and east sides of counter 8. As I recall, they were stacked from the floor six high and four wide on each side. Each carton held eight bottles. The wheels on the cart I was pushing were rather wobbly. I had trouble keeping it straight. All I had in my shopping cart was my purse.