F.W. Woolworth v. Kirby

A Woolco store organized a heavily advertised promotional event dropping prize-redeemable ping-pong balls by airplane into its parking lot, drawing about 4,500 people. During the third and final pass dropping the remaining balls, 70-year-old Lona Kirby (plaintiff), who had entered the crowd between the second and third drops with her grandson, was knocked down and trampled as the crowd rushed for the balls, breaking her hip; other attendees suffered minor injuries too. Kirby sued F.W. Woolworth (defendant) for negligence, arguing the store failed to police or control the crowd it had assembled; a jury found Woolco owed Kirby a duty of reasonable care, breached it by failing to take crowd-control measures, and awarded her $52,500. Woolworth appealed, challenging the jury instructions on whether it owed Kirby any duty at all to protect her from other patrons' conduct.