Nicola v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

SHINN, J. Plaintiff Teresina Nicola slipped and fell on the floor of defendants’ ground floor office which she had visited on September 8, 1939, as an invitee seeking information regarding certain electrical appliances in her home, for which defendants were furnishing electric power. Her husband joined with her in an action for damages, in which it was alleged and the court found that the floor of the office room was negligently maintained by defendants in a slippery and unsafe condition, of which defendants had notice and knowledge. The court found that plaintiff was not guilty of contributory negligence. Upon the appeal defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding of negligence.

There was substantial evidence given at the trial to support the finding that the floor was slippery and that defendants had knowledge of it. The room in question was a large one with doors opening from the street. The floor of this room, including some sixteen or eighteen feet of space between the entry door and the quarters behind which defendants’ employees worked, was covered with a composition material known as “asrock.” This floor had been laid shortly prior to January 1, 1938, on which date defendants moved into the quarters. Upon its completion it was waxed but before occupying the room defendants required the contractor to remove the wax. Two women, witnesses for plaintiffs, testified that they slipped on the floor in January, 1938. One of them testified that she slipped about half way between the door and the counter; that the floor was shiny and appeared to be very slippery; that she visited the office once each month thereafter and that the floor on each occasion appeared to be the same except during the time when defendants had rubber mats on the floor. Another witness testified that she had visited the office regularly from the time it was opened until the end of 1939; that the floor was very slippery and very difficult to stand or walk on; that on each occasion when she visited the office she found the floor in a slippery condition. Defendants had knowledge that two people had fallen on the floor in January, 1938, and their district manager told the agent of the building that at times they would have trouble with the slippery floor inside the entrance door. Thereafter the floor was waxed from time to time, how frequently does not appear, the portions between the counter and the front windows receiving one-half gallon of wax di[614]luted with water, and between waxings it was mopped with warm soap suds and every day it was “mopped up.” It does not appear when, with reference to Mrs. Nicola’s accident, warm suds and water had been used on the floor. While appellants’ janitor testified that he had not used wax on the floor within six weeks before the accident, there was other evidence from which it could have been inferred that the slippery condition of the floor on the day of the accident was due to wax or perhaps soap that had been used on it. It was also in evidence that defendants’ janitor had been cautioned a number of times by his superiors not to allow the floor to become slippery. The evidence was that the wax was not polished after being applied. A few days before plaintiff fell on the floor another woman had slipped and fallen. She testified that the floor was slippery and appeared as if it had been highly polished. This witness had fallen between the door and the cashier’s window and testified that her feet slipped out from under her, that the floor was very slick. Another witness slipped on the floor on the day plaintiff fell and while plaintiff was still in the office. She likewise testified to the slippery condition of the floor, which she examined after she had slipped. Plaintiff on the day of the accident, on her first visit to the office, had traveled but a few feet inside the door when her right foot slipped and she fell heavily to the floor. She, also, testified that the floor was shiny and slippery. There was no evidence that any of these witnesses slipped or fell because of any foreign substance on the floor such as water, oil or grease or because of anything that was on their shoes or that at the respective times when they slipped or fell the floor was in other than its usual condition, although one witness testified that at the time she fell the floor appeared to have been recently polished.