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Benham v. King7/8/2005
On review from the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Appeal from a district court judgment granting a directed verdict to the appellee. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
In this appeal, we address a recurrent issue in premises liability law concerning the duty of care under the particular circumstances of a case to support a claim for negligence. Because we find the plaintiffs' proof in this case to be insufficient, we vacate the decision of the court of appeals and affirm the decision by the district court to grant a directed verdict for the defendant.
I. Background Facts and Proceedings
Steve Benham went to the dentist's office of Ronald King, D.D.S., on October 18, 2000 to have his teeth cleaned. Benham was placed in a dental chair, and a dental assistant cleaned his teeth. The dental assistant then began to raise the chair while Benham was in a supine position. The chair suddenly collapsed. Benham fell against a sink and cabinet located near the chair. He was injured.
The dental chair used by Benham was one of six chairs in the dental office. King purchased and installed the chairs in 1981. The chairs could be raised and lowered into various positions by pressing a switch. The switch operated a motor, which turned a large gear or screw held in place by a white plastic housing unit located beneath the chair. The owner's manual provided to King by the chair manufacturer did not advise owners to inspect or replace the components of the chair, and King did not have an inspection program in place. The only prior problem King experienced with any of the chairs was that some of the set screws used to hold the lift unit in place would occasionally loosen. When this occurred, the lift mechanism would not operate, and the chair would not move up or down. Once King would tighten the loose screws, the lift mechanism would operate. King never had the chair serviced or inspected by anyone outside the office.
King examined the chair after the incident that resulted in the injury to Benham. The set screws were all securely in place, but the white plastic housing unit that held the gear or screw used to raise and lower the chair had split open. King had never heard of any similar failures to dental chairs and had never been warned of the possibility of any such failures.
Benham and his wife brought a personal injury lawsuit against King. They claimed in their petition that King was negligent in failing to provide a safe place for Benham to be seated during the dental treatment. The case proceeded to trial.
At the conclusion of the Benhams' case in chief, King moved for a directed verdict. He argued:
Under the essentials for recovery in a premises liability case, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by preponderance that Dr. King knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known of two things, number one, a condition on the premises; number two, that involved an unreasonable risk of injury to the plaintiff.
Plaintiff's case in chief is devoid of any evidence which would indicate that Dr. King knew of the condition on the premises, that being it's undisputed what caused the chair to fall [was the plastic housing].
In resisting the motion, the Benhams asserted a jury question was generated on the issue of whether King should have known of the dangerous condition of the chair under the circumstances. They claimed the circumstances presented at trial gave rise to a duty to protect him from the danger of a collapse of the chair. These circumstances included the age of the chair, the failure to professionally service the chair, the prior proble
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