[Download] "Mcdonald v. Hickman" by Supreme Court of Arkansas ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Mcdonald v. Hickman
- Author : Supreme Court of Arkansas
- Release Date : January 10, 1972
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 52 KB
Description
This is an action for personal injuries sustained by the appellee, Jerry W. Hickman, when he fell into an unguarded open stair
well in a house that was being constructed for one of the appellants, Walter McDonald (or McDonald). The other appellant,
also a defendant below, is Gerald Rooks, who was McDonald's chief partner. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff,
fixing his total damages at $17,500 and apportioning the negligence in the ratio of 25% to the plaintiff and 75% to the defendants.
For reversal the appellants contend that they were entitled to a directed verdict, on the ground that Hickman's negligence
exceeded their negligence as a matter of law, and, alternatively, that the court erred in not submitting to the jury their
asserted defense of assumption or risk. We find no merit in either contention. First: Comparative negligence. On the day of the accident Hickman, a employee of a rural electric cooperative company, had
gone to the unfinished house to determine what kind of circuit breakers would be needed. Rooks escorted Hickman and another
co-op employee into the house. While Hickman was standing in a somewhat dark windowless hall, examining the electrical panel,
he stepped to his left and fell eight or nine feet to the concrete basement. He actually fell through a four-by-eighteen-foot
opening in the upper floor, where a staircase was to be installed later. The opening was unprotected. Hickman testified that
Rooks later said that he should have told Hickman about the hole being there.