Brown v. George Pepperdine Foundation

GIBSON, C. J.

Carol Ann Brown, a minor, and her mother, Minnie Lee Brown, sued defendants George Pepper-dine Foundation and Oliver & Williams Company for damages resulting from personal injuries received by the minor. The jury returned a verdict for the defendants, and the court granted plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial. George Pepperdine Foundation alone appealed from the order granting the new trial.

Carol Ann, a five-year-old girl, was injured by a fall down the elevator shaft in an apartment building, owned by appellant, in which she and her mother were living. The codefendant, Oliver

&

Williams Company, was in the business of elevator maintenance and had a contract with appellant for the weekly inspection of the elevator, which was operated by the passengers using it.

Mrs. Brown testified that she left her apartment on the third floor with her brother and Carol Ann, intending to use the elevator which was located on an intersecting hallway. Carol Ann ran ahead, and when Mrs. Brown was 10 or 15

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feet distant from the elevator she saw Carol Ann push the elevator button and pull the outer door open. When the door opened into the hallway it was between Carol Ann and her mother, and although she could not say she saw the child fall directly into the shaft, the mother testified that she did see Carol Ann lean forward and disappear “as if she just leaped forward.” When Mrs. Brown reached the door it would not open. She pushed the button and the elevator containing two passengers came down from the fourth floor to the third floor where it was held by the occupants until Carol Ann was rescued from the bottom of the shaft. Plaintiffs relied upon this evidence and the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur to establish the negligence of defendants.

Witnesses for the defendants testified that the elevator had been regularly inspected and serviced weekly, and that it was examined immediately after the accident and found to be working properly. Experts stated that the type of lock used to fasten the outer door was so designed that the door could not be opened unless the elevator car was at the level of that floor, and that they had never known this type of lock to fail even though the electrical current was cut off. They also testified that if the elevator was stopped at a certain point between floors, and the inner folding door opened, it was possible for a small child to crawl from the ear into the shaft. Based upon such evidence it is appellant’s theory that the accident occurred in this manner.