Florence Fellows Morgan v. Armour & Company, a Delaware Corporation

This is a negligence case which was tried in the United States District Court for Arizona, which had jurisdiction because of diversity of citizenship of the parties. The case was tried to the court, without a jury, and a judgment was rendered for the plaintiff in the amount of $5,150.45. The court made 14 findings of fact as to liability.

The plaintiff was a business invitee to the defendant’s premises in Phoenix, Arizona. She desired advertising material, to further her utilization of the defendant’s meat products in her cafe in a near-by small city. For the purpose of selecting advertising material she was conducted by an employee of the defendant to the second floor of the defendant’s building. They proceeded to the second floor by a stairway. Where the stairway entered the second floor, the floor level at the entrance was some 12 inches lower than the part of the second.floor where the advertising materials were lying on one or more tables. There was a ramp leading from the lower to the higher level of the second floor. The parties ascended that ramp, spent some ten or fifteen minutes on the higher level, examining and selecting desired pieces of the advertising material. The…