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112 Mich. 96

Bennett v. Butterfield

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided March 10, 1897

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1897-03-10

Case by Samuel B. Bennett against Harriet A. Butterfield for personal injuries. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff brings error. Defendant was a dealer in wall paper, other kinds of paper, and stationery. She occupied the ground floor, the basement, and the fifth floor of a store 120 feet long and 40 feet wide. The ground floor was her salesroom, and the fifth floor her storeroom, where she kept duplicate and surplus stocks of goods..

Relies on Severy v. Nickerson · Bedell v. Berkey · Victory v. . Baker

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1897-03-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1940

6 state decisions

30189719001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Grant, J.

¶1(after stating the facts). The theory of the plaintiff is that he was invited into a place of danger *98without warning, and without proper guards at the entrance to protect him. This was not a passenger elevator, and unless plaintiff was invited into it he cannot recover. The jury, by their special verdict, have settled this question against the plaintiff, and they could not, under the evidence, consistently have found otherwise. Mr. Fisher, plaintiff’s witness, who was not in defendant’s employ at the time of the trial, flatly contradicted him, and testified, not only that he did not invite him, but that he did not know that plaintiff was following him. The elevator did not run between 12 and 1 o’clock. Fisher was in a hurry to go to the fifth floor to get some goods to fill an order before it stopped. Mr. Williams, the clerk whom plaintiff first addressed, and Mrs. Leahy, the customer upon whom Williams was waiting, also flatly contradict plaintiff. These witnesses testified that, when plaintiff asked Williams where the ingrains were, Williams replied that he would soon be through, and would wait upon him. Without objection, the following special question was submitted to the jury, “Do you find the facts in relation to plaintiff’s going to the place where he was injured to be as testified to by George Williams, Mrs. Leahy, and William Fisher?” to which the jury answered, “Yes.” The fact is therefore established that plaintiff attempted to enter the elevator without invitation, or permission. He alone is responsible for the accident and the injury, and cannot recover. Bedell v. Berkey, 76 Mich. 435 (15 Am. St. Rep. 370); Pelton v. Schmidt, 97 Mich. 231; Severy v. Nickerson, 120 Mass. 306 (21 Am. Rep. 514); Victory v. Baker, 67 N. Y. 366; Gibson v. Sziepienski, 37 Ill. App. 601.

¶2Many alleged errors are assigned, but they do not affect the evidence upon which the jury based their special finding. It is unnecessary, therefore, to discuss them.

¶3Judgment affirmed.

The other Justices concurred.
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