Eugene Peak v. K-Mart Corporation

Premises Liability - Negligence - Personal Injury - Automatic Doors - Eugene Peak, then age 64, was
injured on December 13, 1995, in the defendant Kmart's store in Cullman, by
an automatic door. The door had been manufactured by Gyrotech, Inc., and
installed by Universal Door Systems, Inc. ("Universal"). The accident
occurred as Peak was attempting to enter the store to shop for Christmas
gifts. Because he had not fully recovered from a stroke he had suffered the
previous summer, he was walking slowly and with the aid of a walking cane.
As he approached the building, the outermost set of automatic doors opened
and he walked through the doorway. He then encountered a second set of
automatic doors, which also opened spontaneously.

However, as he stepped across the threshold of the second doorway, the
door suddenly closed upon his left leg and knocked him to the floor; his
left hip was fractured in the fall. This incident was witnessed by at least
two other Kmart shoppers, namely, Mrs. Dorothy Welch Horton and her
daughter. They rushed to the side of Peak, who was lying across the
threshold of the doorway. When they reached him, the automatic door was
still closing on him, squeezing him in the doorway. As Horton attempted to
extract Peak from the doorway, she was forced to use her body as a wedge
against the door, which, by that time, was closing on both her and Peak.
Ultimately, a Kmart employee arrived on the scene and disconnected the
door's power supply. Peak was then taken in an ambulance to a hospital,
where he underwent hip surgery.

On December 20, 1995, pursuant to a service contract between Universal and
Kmart, Universal sent service technician Rodney Preston to the scene to
investigate the cause of the incident. Preston found that the "the holding
beams," that is, automatic sensors located in the doorway, "were
inoperative." This was so, he concluded, because a "wiring harness" had
become disconnected, so that the power supply to the holding beams was
disrupted.

Peak sued Kmart, alleging that it had negligently or wantonly "allowed
[the] door to exist in a dangerous and hazardous condition and without
proper and necessary safety measures to prevent foreseeable falls such as
the one made the basis of this suit." He also sued Universal, and Kmart
cross-claimed against that defendant.

The court directed verdicts for Universal
both as to Peak's complaint and as to Kmart's cross-claim. Peak's negligence
and wantonness claims against Kmart were submitted to the jury, which
awarded Peak $100,000 in compensatory damages and $225,000 in punitive
damages. The court entered a judgment on that verdict.

Unknown

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Affirmed by the Supreme Court of Alabama. See: ___ So.2d ___ (Ala. 9-24-99). Note: The above date reflects the appellate court decision date, not the original trial date. Reported by kkm.