Welden v. E. B. Meyrowitz, Inc. ( 1938 )

Respondent fell down a stairway in defendant’s store and sustained injuries, for which she brought an action for damages. Her husband joined in the action, seeking to recover for expenses and loss of services. Before trial the husband died. Respondent recovered a verdict for $12,000. From the judgment entered thereon and the order denying the motion for a new trial, defendant appeals. Judgment and order unanimously affirmed, with costs. The jury’s verdict imports that plaintiff was specially invited to a place in defendant’s store between a counter or showcase on one side and a workbench on the other side, where customers ordinarily do not go or are not expected to go; that she received no warning of a stairway behind a partition and alongside the narrow space to which she was invited, and the danger thereof; and that the circumstances were such as to confine her attention to a picture on the wall and thus to divert her attention from everything else, including the stairway. This a jury could find to be a violation of duty owing by defendant to plaintiff. Present — Lazansky, P. J., Hagarty, Carswell, Johnston and Taylor, JJ.