English v. Drumwright

SHEPARD, J. This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment for defendant on a jury verdict in a personal injury action.

Facts

On January 2, 1959, a waitress in the coffee shop of defendant dropped a glass of water while clearing a table. It made a wet spot on the floor about 12 to 14 inches across. Within a few seconds the dishwasher was called to mop the floor. Some [81115] to 30 seconds after the water was spilled, while the dishwasher was coming with a mop, plaintiff walked into the coffee shop, and fell at a spot close to where the water was spilled. She did not testify positively how she fell, except to say she slipped. While on the floor, she felt her dress was damp. Within seconds, two patrons from the lunch counter helped her up and she sat at a booth a foot or so from where she fell. At that time she told two witnesses she was all right. She says she suffered a 6-inch shallow flesh wound on the left upper thigh; that she saw blood; that her right foot hurt, and she was shaking all over like she had a big beating. While seated at the booth after the fall, she ordered two hamburger sandwiches, waited for their preparation, took delivery thereof, had the waitress order a taxicab, and left.

Plaintiff does not state, nor do any of the other witnesses who were there present relate, that she told them her thigh was cut or bloody. None of the witnesses there present saw any blood, nor any cut. She refused assistance from the waitress, and from the patron witness who had helped her up, and walked out under her own power. She says the cab driver helped her, but neither the patron who had helped her up, nor the waitress saw this. She says that when she went home she lay flat on the bed. On cross-examination she was confronted with a typed letter, sent the same afternoon by her to defendant, threatening to sue him. She at first said she must have typed the letter a day or so later, but when confronted with the postmark of the same day, admitted she typed it that afternoon. She called herself a widow, but on cross-examination she admitted she had been married and divorced three times, and had adopted the title “widow” because one of her husbands had died after divorce. She related a history of chronic duodenal ulcer but claimed aggravation of this trouble after the accident. She later admitted, on cross-examination, a former diagnosis of spinal arthritis. Confronted with the written record of doctors in which she was purported to have related her medical history to them, she disputed the correctness of portions of the facts therein stated. She denied suing any other person for personal injuries in the previous 30 years, but on cross-examination admitted she had sued and collected $5,000 from a riding academy in Los Angeles for a claimed injury. She termed her three marriages as “misfortunes.” She admitted hospitalization in Florida for either polio or arthritis. She was dissatisfied with the medical diagnosis and treatment of Dr, Chamberlain and changed sucees