Brown

Plaintiff sued a public entity to recover for personal injuries after he slipped and fell on public property. The Court of Appeal held that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur precluded summary judgment for the public entity even though there was no evidence to show how the slippery object came to be on the floor or that the public entity had notice of the hazard. We reverse.

Plaintiff Francis Brown sued defendant Poway Unified School District (hereafter District) after he slipped and fell on the District's property. Brown, a self-employed computer repairman, was delivering computers to the District's facilities building at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning. Brown parked his van near a door and, with the help of a District employee, made five trips down a hallway between the van and the room where the computers were stored. On the last trip back to his van, Brown slipped and fell. The employees who helped Brown to his feet found a fresh slice of lunch meat stuck to the sole of his shoe.

Brown sued the District. The ensuing discovery generated declarations or deposition testimony from every person known to have entered the hallway between Friday afternoon, when the…

I dissent.

I am concerned with the damage the majority are inflicting on the venerable doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. True, they inject a few qualifying words here and there, but the bottom line is that “the thing speaks for itself’ may hereafter be heard as a mere whisper.

It must be kept in mind that the Court of Appeal did not decide the merits of the complaint, it held only that the issue was one of fact and could not be decided on summary judgment. In this the Court of Appeal was correct; its decision should not be reversed.

I cite, in particular, the following excerpts from the thoughtful Court of Appeal opinion of Justice Froehlich, concurred in by Justices Wiener and Huffman:

“[T]he ‘doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable where the accident is of such a nature that it can be said, in the light of past experience, that it *839 probably was the result of negligence by someone and that the defendant is probably the one responsible.’ ” (Newing v. Cheatham (1975) 15 Cal.3d 351, 359 [ 124 Cal.Rptr. 193 , 540 P.2d 33 ], quoting Di Mare v. Cresci (1962) 58 Cal.2d 292, 298-299 [ 23 Cal.Rptr. 772 , 373 P.2d 860 ].) Three conditions are necessary to apply the doctrine:

“…

Plaintiff sued a public entity to recover for personal injuries after he slipped and fell on public property. The Court of Appeal held that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur precluded summary judgment for the public entity even though there was no evidence to show how the slippery object came to be on the floor or that the public entity had notice of the hazard. We reverse.

Background

Plaintiff Francis Brown sued defendant Poway Unified School District (hereafter District) after he slipped and fell on the District’s property. *824 Brown, a self-employed computer repairman, was delivering computers to the District’s facilities building at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning. Brown parked his van near a door and, with the help of a District employee, made five trips down a hallway between the van and the room where the computers were stored. On the last trip back to his van, Brown slipped and fell. The employees who helped Brown to his feet found a fresh slice of lunch meat stuck to the sole of his shoe.

Brown sued the District. The ensuing discovery generated declarations or deposition testimony from every person known to have entered the hallway between Friday afternoon, when…