Bunnell v. Stern

The defendants are the proprietors of a retail store on Twenty-third street, in the city of Hew York, which has a department for the sale of ready-made cloaks. On the 19th of April, 1887, the plaintiff went to their store to purchase a wrap, and entei’ing the cloak department and making known her Business, was conducted by one of the saleswomen to a place where thei*e were two chairs near a mirror. She sat down on one of the chairs while the clerk brought her several garments to examine, and after looking them over for ten or fifteen minutes she selected one to try on and went to the mirror for that purpose. A large window was open near by and she complained of the drought, whereupon the clerk conducted her tkrough a passageway formed by ii'on frames on which wraps were hung, to another compartment about twenty-five feet distant, where there was a mirror but no chaira. The clerk carried the new cloak, and stood in front of the mirror waiting for the plaintiff to put it on. The plaintiff carried her own cloak, which she had removed in order to try on the other, to the place where the clerk stood, and laid it on a counter, about eight feet from the mirror, directly in front of another clerk who stood behind waiting upon a customer. She did not ask and was not told where to put her cloak, but the saleswoman who was waiting upon her, as well as the clerk behind the counter, observed her as she thus laid it. down, but neither said anything. There was no other place to put the cloak.

The plaintiff, after spending four or five minutes in trying on the garment, said that she would take it, and at once went to get her cloak, but it could not be found, although careful search was made for it. Only one other customer was in either of the compartments while the plaintiff was in the store.

There was a floor-walker in the cloak department who had the same authority there as one of the defendants. It was his duty

The clerk who waited upon the plaintiff testified that customers, under such circumstances, placed their cloaks on chairs, and where it was most convenient for them, and that she paid no attention to garments removed in order to try on others. ■

Ho notice was given to the plaintiff either directly or indirectly as to where she should put her cloak, and no instructions had been given by the defendants to their clerks as to the disposition of garments removed by customers in order to try on those offered for sale. These facts were either expressly sworn to and not denied, or are permissible inferences which the trial justice, sitting without a jury, is presumed to have drawn from the evidence. The question is thus presented whether the defendants owed any duty to the plaintiff which they omitted to discharge to her injury.

The defendants kept a store and thus invited the public to come there and trade. In one of its departments they kept ready made cloaks for sale and provided mirrors for the use of customers in trying them on, and clerks to aid in the process. They thus invited each lady who came there to buy a cloak to remove the one she had on and try on the one that they wished her to purchase, because the invitation to do a given act extends by implication to whatever is known to be necessary in order to do that act It is not perceived that, under the circumstances disclosed by the evidence, the obligation of the defendants would have been greater or in- any respect different if one of their number had met the plaintiff on the street and had not only expressly invited her to come to the store and buy a cloak, but had also requested her to take off her wrap and try on the one that he offered to sell her. The clerk who waited upon her stood in the place of the defendants as long as she was engaged in the line of her duties, and no claim is made that she at any time exceeded her authority. Therefore, when she led the way to the second mirror and stood before it holding the new garment in her hands in readiness to help' the plaintiff try it on, in legal effect one of the defendants stood there inviting her to try it on and to lay aside her wrap for that purpose. She accepted the invitation and removed her wrap, but as she could not hold it in her hands, while she tried on the other, it was necessary for her to lay it down somewhere. Ho place was provided for that purpose. There was not even a chair in sight. She was neither notified where, to put it, nor informed that she must

It is unnecessary for us to define the degree of care required by the circumstances, because no care whatever was exercised by the defendants. While they created the situation that required care, they made no provision for it by furnishing a safe place to deposit the property of customers, or notifying the plaintiff to look out for her cloak herself, or making rules for the government of their employes under such circumstances, or in any other way. Even the chairs on which customers were in the habit of leaving their garments were wholly wanting, and the floor-wallcer was absent without explanation as to the reason. As the defendants were bound to use ordinary care to keep their premises in a safe condition for the access of business visitors, whether expressly or impliedly invited, Coughtry v. Globe Woollen Co., 56 N. Y., 124 , 126; Beck v. Carter, 68 id., 283; Welch v. McAllister, 15 Mo. App., 492 ; Nave v. Flack, 90 Ind., 205 ; Pastene v. Adams, 49 Cal., 87 ; Learoyd v. Godfrey, 138 Mass., 315 , so we think they were bound to use some care for the property of the plaintiff, properly brought there, and necessarily laid aside by their implied invitation in order to attend to the business in hand. They omitted to do that which “ a reasonable man, guided by those considerations that ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs,” would have done under the same circumstances, and were thus guilty of negligence.

Our attention has been called to no authority directly in point The cases relied upon by the defendants are Carpenter v. Taylor, 1 Hilt., 193; Rea v. Simmons, 141 Mass., 561 , and Whitney v. Pullman Palace Car Co., 9 N. E. Rep., 619 .

In Carpenter v. Taylor, the plaintiff entered the saloon of a hotel to get refreshments between twelve and one o’clock at night, and when he went out the place was being closed. He left his opera-glass behind, but it did not appear where, and the next morning, when he called for it, it could not be found. As it did not appear that the defendant, or any of his servants, ever received or even saw the glass, it was properly held that he was not responsible for its loss.

While Rea v. Simmons is somewhat analogous to the case at bar in its facts, the decision seems to have proceeded on a question of practice. The entire opinion consists of ten lines and states that while the case was reported to the court for its opinion upon the question of law involved, no specific questions of law

In Whitney v. Pullman Palace Car Co., the decision was simply that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, while the question whether there was any evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant was expressly reserved.

We think that the defendants, as voluntary custodians for profit to themselves, were bound to exercise some care over the plaintiff’s cloak, and that on account of their absolute failure in this regard they were properly held liable by the trial court for the damages that she sustained.

The order of the general term should be reversed and the judgment of the district court affirmed, with costs.

All concur, except Bradley, J., dissenting, and Haight, J.r absent.