Brace v. Kirby

Citations

• 43 Pa. Super. 389
• 1910 Pa. Super. LEXIS 58

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Stairway in department store — Evidence—Province of court and jury.</p> <p>1. In an action by a woman against the proprietors of a department store to recover damages for personal injuries caused by a fall on a stairway in the store, there is no case for the jury, where the only evidence offered by plaintiff as to the alleged negligence of the defendants was the testimony of one man who stated that owing to a similar accident to his wife he had carefully watched the stairway in question, and that three months prior to the accident he noticed that the metal plate on the particular step on which plaintiff fell, was raised about one-sixteenth of an inch; that shortly before the accident it was raised about a quarter of an inch, and that it was “hardly noticeable,” and this testimony is not supported by any statement of the witness that he had attempted by measurement to verify the opinion which he offered.</p> <p>2. The general rule is that a man is answerable for those consequences of a fault which are natural and probable, and might therefore be foreseen by ordinary forecast, but an individual is not presumed to contemplate the coincidence of events having no probable or natural connection in the mind, and which cannot by ordinary thoughtfulness be foreseen as likely to happen in consequence of the act in which he is engaged.</p>