Dorsch v. S. S. Kresge Co.

Per Curiam. The appellant, Alice Dorsch, was injured when she slipped and fell on the sidewalk or on the street near the appellee’s store at the corner of Lexington Street and Park Avenue in Baltimore. There had been a snowfall the night before, and the appellee’s employees had removed the snow from the abutting sidewalk before the accident. At the conclusion of the appellants’ case, in the Baltimore City Court, before a jury, Judge O’Donnell granted the appellee’s motion for a directed verdict.

We think he was correct. The appellants properly concede that a failure of a property owner to clear snow from the abutting pavement, as required by a Baltimore City Ordinance, does not create a liability for an injury to a pedestrian sustained by reason of the violation of the duty imposed by the ordinance. Weisner v. Mayor and City Council of Rockville, 245 Md. 225 , 225 A. 2d 648 (1967), and cases therein cited. They contend, however, that once a property owner has undertaken to clear away the snow, it is under the duty to use reasonable care in the performance of the act so undertaken, and is responsible for injuries sustained by reason of a negligent failure to perform the act properly.

We do not reach the legal question involved in this contention, see Honolulu Limited v. Cain, 244 Md. 590 , 224 A. 2d 433 (1966), for we agree with Judge O’Donnell, in his thorough oral opin ⁶⁹⁹ ion, that there was no evidence which would have entitled the appellants to recover under any legal theory. The Judge assumed, arguendo, that the appellee might be liable if it had cleaned the sidewalk imperfectly, but held that, in any event, there was no evidence that the work of removing the snow had been negligently performed. The record sustains that conclusion. Nor, if it be assumed ice had formed after the snow had been cleared, was there any evidence adduced by the appellants or any reasonable inference from the testimony