Rayl

Plaintiff sued for personal injuries resulting from the fall of a passenger elevator operated by defendant Massetti under employment of his co-defendant. The cause was tried with a jury and both defendants had a verdict. The plaintiff appealed on typewritten transcripts.

The plaintiff alleged negligence in general terms and then pleaded seven special instances in which the defendants were alleged to have been negligent in their operation of the elevator. All charges of negligence were denied and the defendants specially pleaded that the fall of the elevator which caused plaintiff’s injuries was the result of unavoid able accident which they could not have foreseen or prevented. Plaintiff was his own witness and called defendant Massetti under section 2055 of the Code of Civil Procedure. These were his only witnesses called on the issue of negligence. Plaintiff’s testimony of the circumstances of the accident was vague and uncertain and he was so effectively impeached that the jury must have rejected his testimony as incredible. Massetti’s testimony as plaintiff’s witness aided plaintiff not at all. Thus plaintiff’s whole case rests upon the application of the doctrine of res ipsa…