[DOWNLOAD] "Davidson v. Harris Inc." by Court of Appeals of Georgia ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Davidson v. Harris Inc.
- Author : Court of Appeals of Georgia
- Release Date : January 16, 1949
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
Mrs. Sophie Davidson brought a petition to recover damages from Harris Inc. Substantially, the petition alleged that the defendant operated a restaurant on the lobby floor of the Hurt Building, and approximately underneath this restaurant the defendant also operated a grill, in the basement. There was a two-flight stairway between the restaurant on the lobby floor and the grill. There was a landing about half-way down the stairway. Along the stairway was a handrail. There was a sign on the lobby floor indicating the stairway to the grill, and also another sign at the landing indicating the way to the grill down the stairway. On the occasion in question the plaintiff had descended the stairway as an invitee to take lunch in the grill. After completing the lunch, between 2 and 2:30 p.m., and at approximately 2:15 p.m., the plaintiff started to ascend from the grill to the lobby floor. After she had ascended to the landing from the grill, a waitress, Mrs. Ethel Wheeler, fell from the stairway between the landing and the lobby floor and struck the plaintiff with great force, knocking and pressing the plaintiff against the handrail and thereby inflicting on the plaintiff severe bodily injuries. It is further alleged: that the defendant maintained and operated as a part of its restaurant a kitchen in the basement, and provided in the kitchen a rest room and locker room for its female employees working both in the restaurant on the lobby floor and in the basement; that this rest room and locker room were provided for the employees for their use and benefit for the purpose of enabling them to carry out their necessary and natural functions of life and to dress themselves and change their clothes, and for the pleasure and convenience of the employees to better carry on their duties for the defendant; that the employee, Ethel Wheeler, was assigned as a waitress by the defendant to the restaurant on the lobby floor; and that Ethel Wheeler was on her way from the restaurant on the lobby floor to use the rest room in the basement, acting within the scope of her employment. It is further alleged that Ethel Wheeler did not approach and descend the said stairs in a careful and diligent manner, but in a careless and negligent manner, ""running, smoking, playing, and jostling with another employee of the defendant;"" and that, as a result of the negligence of Ethel Wheeler, she fell down the stairs against the plaintiff, knocking the plaintiff against the railing and thus inflicting the injuries described in the petition. It is further alleged that the plaintiff could not have avoided the injuries inflicted upon her. The specifications of negligence alleged in the petition are: ""(a) In that its said employee, Ethel Wheeler, did not approach and descend said stairs in a careful and diligent manner. (b) In that its said employee, Ethel Wheeler, did approach and descend the said stairs in a careless and negligent manner. (c) In that defendant failed in its duty to protect petitioner as an invitee from the negligence of the said employee."" No demurrers were filed. The defendant filed an answer in which it admitted that the defendant was a corporation with an office and agent and place of business in Fulton County, Georgia, and denied all of the other allegations of the petition. The plaintiff introduced evidence, and thereafter on motion a non-suit was granted.