SUITLAND MANOR OWNER'S ASSOCIATION, INC. v. Cadle

McWilliams, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellee (Mrs. Cadle) fell down and for the hurt she suffered a Prince George’s County jury awarded her $12,500. The appellant (Suitland) urges us to conclude, after a review of the record, either that the evidence of primary negligence was insufficient to justify the submission of the case to the jury or that, as a matter of law, the evidence shows Mrs. Cadle to have been contributorily negligent. We shall do neither.

Mrs. Cadle, a tenant of Suitland, had expressed an interest in another apartment. The manager loaned her the key so she could inspect it at her convenience. On 10 September 1966 she left her place of employment shortly after five o’clock. It had rained heavily during the afternoon and, she said, it was still raining.

She went directly to her apartment and waited for hex husband, from whom she was separated, to call for her. They intended to dine together. They stopped at Suitland’s rental office so she could return the key. She walked across a grass strip, crossed the sidewalk and went down a set of concrete steps to the concrete landing just outside the door to the rental office which was open.

As she went in she saw the janitor with a mop but at that instant she slipped and fell on the wet asphalt tile floor. There was evidence that the drain outside the door was so small that “it couldn’t handle the overflow” in a heavy rain and that the water “just came through the ²³² door.” Mrs. Bouvier, who had been the manager for about 18 months, testified the water usually came in whenever it rained heavily and that tenants had asked “when are you going to get it fixed.” There was