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Marx v. Huron Little Rock11/10/2004
In this personal injury suit filed by appellant Carol Marx, the jury found in favor of the defendant, appellee Huron Little Rock, LLC. Appellant argues on appeal that the trial court erred when it denied her motion for a directed verdict and instructed the jury on comparative fault, and when it refused to give her proffered instruction on res ipsa loquitur. We agree with appellant on both points and therefore reverse and remand for a new trial.
Appellant was injured in a rather bizarre accident that occurred at the Little Rock Hilton, which is owned and operated by appellee. In September 2000, appellant and her husband, who are from Louisiana, stayed overnight at the Hilton for the purpose of attending a funeral in Little Rock. On the morning of September 22, while getting ready for the funeral, appellant, who was in her late seventies, was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet in the bathroom of the hotel room. While she was in the process of putting on her pantyhose, the lid detached from the toilet-seat assembly, and appellant fell to the floor between the bathtub and the toilet. Appellant was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a compression fracture of the spine.
On November 27, 2001, appellant sued appellee for negligence in connection with the incident, and she specifically pled that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur applied. Appellee answered that appellant's injuries were proximately caused by her own fault and that res ipsa loquitur did not apply. A jury trial was held, and the following testimony, as gleaned from appellant's abstract, was adduced. Appellant's husband, Sach Marx, testified that he was in the bedroom area of the hotel room on the morning of the incident when he heard his wife scream. He went into the bathroom and found her on the floor between the bathtub and the toilet, lying on top of the toilet lid. He called the front desk to ask for an ambulance, and upon its arrival, he accompanied his wife to the hospital.
Appellant, who was eighty-one years old at the time of trial, testified that she was a small woman, standing four feet ten or eleven inches tall and weighing 102 pounds. On the morning of the incident, she went into the bathroom and sat on the closed toilet lid in order to put some medicine on her toes, which she did by facing straight ahead while sitting on the seat. After that task was complete, she put the medicine down and began to put on her pantyhose. While still sitting on the lid, she put the pantyhose on both feet and partly up her legs. At that point, she said, the lid slid off the toilet with her on it, and she fell to the floor, hitting the bathtub in the process. On cross-examination, appellant said that she had probably used the toilet the night before and the morning of the incident, but she had not noticed any looseness in the seat. Further, she said that she did not notice any problem with the seat while she was initially putting on her pantyhose. However, at some point, she said, she simply "felt the lid go."
Michael Durbin, the chief engineer at the Hilton, testified that it was the duty of the housekeeping and maintenance staff to be on the lookout for hazards in the rooms. After the incident, Durbin put the lid back on the toilet and had to force it onto the seat, then had to pull and twist it to get it back off. Finally, Durbin took the seat assembly off the toilet and put it in a box, which he then placed in the general manager's office. The box stayed there for over a year, at which time Durbin moved it to his office, where it remained until he showed it to appellee's attorney in September 2002. When the attorney and Durbin opened the box, they noticed that one bumper was missing from the toi
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