Jurors For Elevator Suit Stuck 20 Minutes Between Floors

Circuit Judge Lon Cornelius quizzed them later -- after a repairman for the same elevator company being sued freed them -- just to make sure they wouldn't hold a grudge.

A dozen Orange County jurors on their way to hear a lawsuit against an elevator company were a little late getting to the courtroom Monday -- they got stuck in the elevator.

''I figured we ought to find out if they were upset,'' Cornelius said. ''I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't, well, influence their decision in any way.''

The case involves a suit by a Michigan woman, Florence Hewitt, who broke her nose in December 1983 when she fell on an escalator at Walt Disney World's Contemporary Hotel. She sued Disney and Otis Elevator Co., which maintained the escalator.

About 10 a.m. Monday, 18 jurors were going from the first-floor assembly room to Cornelius' third-floor courtroom so lawyers could pick six of them, plus one alternate, to hear the trial that starts today.

A dozen of them got on Elevator F. They spent the next 20 minutes in the 6-by-6-foot car when it jammed between floors.

The jurors, barely grumbling, were freed by a repairman for Otis Elevators, which maintains the county's elevators.

It wasn't the first time in recent months than a courthouse elevator has jammed between floors. Two months ago the same elevator trapped about a dozen jurors for 15 minutes. It jammed again a few weeks ago.

Jim Hartmann, assistant to the county administrator, said Otis has done a good job maintaining the courthouse elevators.

''But those are old elevators,'' he said, ''and you're going to have some problems with them because they get very heavy usage.''

County officials weren't sure what caused the elevator to jam Monday. Art Watts, county facilities manager, speculated it might have been overloaded. Its capacity is 2,500 pounds.

Sonny Hilyard, a lawyer representing Otis Elevators in the lawsuit, called it ''a strange coincidence'' but said it won't hurt his case.

Judge Cornelius was unsure how many of the jurors stuck in the elevator ended up on the jury.

He said, though, that it won't make any difference. ''They all assured me that they could put it aside and decide this case based only on the evidence they get in the courtroom.''