Hamano v. Edelson

LILLIE, J. Plaintiff minor, then 12% years of age, sustained cuts and other personal injuries when she collided with a closed glass door while making her exit from a laundromat open to the general public and operated by defendant Bdelson. Two years prior to the incident, he had rented the premises from defendant Goldsmith. Negligence in the maintenance of the door was alleged, and damages demanded. A jury returned a verdict in favor of each defendant and against plaintiff ; her motion for new trial was subsequently denied. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment entered on the jury verdict.

It must be pointed out, preliminarily, that the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict is not challenged; however, a summary of the relevant facts becomes necessary in view of plaintiff’s contentions, some three in number, that procedural errors were committed by court and counsel which denied her a fair trial. The accident happened at mid-morning of a day in December. Plaintiff lived in an apartment building three doors from the laundromat which she had patronized, alone and with her mother, on many prior occasions. On the morning in question she left her home to visit a girl friend and stopped at the laundromat, entering by the rear door, to buy candy from one of its vending machines. A short while later, she decided to leave by the front (subject) door. On direct examination she testified, “I thought it was open, so I was walking toward the doorway when I went into the door.” (The door had actually never been unlocked after the previous night’s operations; although there was no evidence to such effect, plaintiff seems to suggest that it was the fault of a private security patrol employed by Bdelson.) On cross-examination, however, she admitted that she had left the premises on other occasions through this same front door when it was closed; she knew also that, in order to be opened, the door had to be pulled inward by means of a handle eight inches long and two to three inches wide, and she conceded that on other occasions she “might” have pulled this handle to open the door. Certain photographs, defendant’s exhibits, additionally show an aluminum stripping (established to be two inches wide) framing or encasing the glass, an automatic [787]self-closing device and a mail slot, all visible from the inside and furnishing a contrast between glass and the exterior sidewalk. Although testifying that nothing occurred to distract her attention as she approached the exit, plaintiff stated that she was already in motion and taking a step toward the door when she noticed that the doorway was not an open space.