Holdridge v. Drewes

SALSMAN, J. The plaintiff brought this action against defendants Drewes and Belaich for injuries sustained when she slipped and fell while stepping over a raised curb in front of residential property owned by defendant Drewes, after walking around a car parked across the sidewalk by defendant Belaich. After refusing to admit certain evidence, the court granted a defense motion for a nonsuit as to defendant Drewes at the close of plaintiff’s case. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $8,209.59 against defendant Belaich. Belaich has not appealed. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment of nonsuit in favor of the defendant Drewes.

The accident occurred on July 9, 1959 at about 9:30 p.m. Plaintiff was walking uphill on the left side of Buchanan Street, toward Green. Defendant’s property is located at 2910-2912 Buchanan, midway between Union and Green. Defendant Belaich’s automobile was parked across the sidewalk in the driveway of defendant Drewes’ building, where he was a tenant. The plaintiff, who was 62 years of age at the time, could not safely pass around the front end of the ear on the garage side. She therefore stepped into the street and walked around the rear end of the car. She was carrying a small suitcase and an overnight bag. It was dark. As she stepped up from the street to the sidewalk, she tripped and fell, injuring her hip.

When plaintiff stepped up from the street, she expected the sidewalk to be at the same level as the top of the curbstone separating the sidewalk from the street. It was not. The concrete square of sidewalk next to the curbstone was considerably lower than the top of the curbstone. The curbstone and adjacent square in question were at the uphill edge of defendant ’s driveway.

Defendant’s building had been owned by her family for at least 75 years. The defendant became sole owner of it in 1959 before the accident occurred, after holding an interest in it as a joint tenant. She did not live on the property, and her agent collected the rent.

At trial plaintiff offered as evidence copies of records of the Central Permit Bureau of the San Francisco Department of [629]Public Works. The first of these records, dated November 5, 1914, is an application to make certain repairs and additions to defendant’s premises, signed by R. W. Cudworth as owner. A subsequent application also requests permission to make alterations and repairs, including the construction of a basement garage. The City Inspector noted on the application that construction of the garage would necessitate an “. . . incline in sidewalk.” Below this notation appear the words: “. . . no garage agreed to . . .” and below them the signature of R. W. Cudworth. The third application, dated January 21, 1943, requests permission to “Install new foundations, concrete floor in garage ...” and to do other work. Permission to make these alterations and repairs was granted. Bach of these documents was excluded as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.