Opinion

James v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

  • 141 N.C. App. 721
  • 543 S.E.2d 158
  • 2001 N.C. App. LEXIS 19
  • 2001 WL 50914
Court
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Filed
Jan 16, 2001
Status
Published
Author
Edmunds
On the bench
Edmunds, Greene, Walker
Cited by
3 cases
Authority
More cited than 18.7%

The opinion

EDMUNDS, Judge,

dissenting.

As the majority notes, a trial court must provide the substance of a requested instruction where that instruction is a correct statement of the relevant law and is supported by evidence. The instruction given here properly advised the jury that defendant owed plaintiff a duty of reasonable care. See Nelson v. Freeland, 349 N.C. 615 , 507 S.E.2d 882 (1998). The majority holds that the court also should have instructed that defendant had a duty to warn plaintiff of “any hidden or concealed dangerous condition about which the owner knows or, in the exercise of ordinary care, should have known.” However, this Court held that “a landowner need not warn of any ‘apparent hazards or circumstances of which the [plaintiff] has equal or superior knowledge.’ ” Viczay v. Thoms, 140 N.C. App. 737, 739 , 538 S.E.2d 629, 631 (2000) (alteration in original) (quoting Jenkins v. Lake Montonia Club, Inc., 125 N.C. App. 102, 105 , 479 S.E.2d 259, 262 (1997)) aff'd per curiam, 353 N.C. 445 , 545 S.E.2d 210 (2001). The evidence in the case at bar is uncontested that the condition that led to plaintiffs fall was not concealed or hidden, that plaintiff had full knowledge rain was falling, that defendant had put out at least one warning sign, that plaintiff heeded the warning sign by wiping her feet several times, and that defendant took steps to remove moisture from the floor where plaintiff fell. See Stafford v. Food World, 31 N.C. App. 213 , 228 S.E.2d 756 (1976); Gaskill v. A. and P. Tea Co., 6 N.C. App. 690 , 161 S.E.2d 95 (1969). “Even if the floor was wet due to the rain that evening, this condition would have been an obvious danger of which plaintiff should have been aware since she knew it was raining outside and it was likely that people would track water in on their shoes.” Byrd v. Arrowood, 118 N.C. App. 418, 421 , 455 S.E.2d 672, 674 (1995). The instruction given by the trial court was proper and adequate. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.