Sheyer v. Lowell

GRAY, C.

—This action was brought to recover damages for personal injuries, alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff in falling down an elevator-well, negligently left open in-defendants’ warehouse, situated in the city of San Francisco. The plaintiff had a verdict and judgment for three hundred dollars. Defendants appeal from an order denying their motion for a new trial.

The plaintiff was sent by his employer to the warehouse of defendants to procure a sample of nuts stored there. On entering the warehouse, he was informed by the porter in defendants’ employ that he thought the goods were on the floor above. The porter said, “We will take the elevator and go up.” The porter then led the way down a dark and narrow passage, some fifty feet from the front door, to the elevator in the back part of the building, where he seized the rope of the elevator, and the plaintiff, thinking the elevator was about to start up, attempted to go .upon it, but, it being at the next floor above, he stepped into- the well and fell to the, .cement floor of the basement, severely injuring his knee. It was a rainy, gloomy day,

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and so dark where'the elevator was- supposed to be; that plaintiff could not see whether it was there or not, but it appears that the porter knew, on approaching the well, that the ele-" vator was at the floor above, and really took hold of the rope to bring it down when plaintiff fell. Though the well was without any guard rail or chain in place,-the porter appears to have taken no steps to warn plaintiff, or prevent him in any way from falling into it. Of course, the plaintiff had the right to trust himself to the guidance of the porter. | He also had the' right to suppose that the porter would not drop him through any trap-door, or guide him into any elevator-well; and we think the jury were warranted in reaching the conclusion that the injury was the proximate result of the negligence of the porter, and not the result of any contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff. / Finding this well open, poorly lighted, and unguarded, as he did, common prudence demanded of the porter that he should see to it that a stranger on the premises did not walk or fall into it; and his employer should not, under the circumstances disclosed, be heard to say that the stranger walked into it himself as the result of his own negligence. Clearly, the porter was negligent, and we need go no further in search" of evidence to uphold the verdict against- his employers.