Winning Supermarket and Grocery Store Slip and Fall Cases
Supermarket and grocery store slip and fall cases depend heavily on demonstrating the negligence of the store operators. Although the burden on the store to provide a safe environment is very high, it’s ultimately the responsibility of the victim to show that the store didn’t meet that burden. For a slip and fall victim, proving how a substance, shopping item or supplies created an unreasonable hazard can be a daunting task.
Proving that a transitory foreign substance existed on the floor is not enough. Instead, the victim must show that the hazard was reasonably foreseeable because it occurred on a repeated basis. Alternatively, the victim may indicate that the transitory foreign substance was on the premises for so long that the owner should have known about it and fixed it.
Montgomery v. Florida Jitney Jungle Stores, Inc. 281 So.2d. 302 (1973)
The Florida Supreme Court memorialized the law for slip and fall grocery store cases in the case of Montgomery v. Florida Jitney Jungle Stores, Inc. 281 So.2d. 302. In this case, a stray collard green was on the floor of a grocery store. The victim slipped on the collard green and was hurt. The victim testified that she had been in the area for about 15 minutes before the accident and there were no other shoppers. No one came and swept, she said. The leaf was described as old and dirty.
Employees of the store contradicted her testimony. They said they swept shortly before the woman entered the area of the store. The jury ruled in favor of the woman.
The court clarified that a victim must have some evidence of how the dangerous condition came to be. It’s not enough to ask the jury to infer that the store is at fault for the hazardous condition. Instead, the victim must show that it’s the store’s fault that the danger was present. In the Montgomery case, the testimony was from the woman herself that the store did not give any attention to the area in the 15 minutes before the accident.
What victims can learn from the Montgomery case is that it’s critically important to develop evidence of negligence in a supermarket or grocery store case. Negligence is a critical piece of any accident in a supermarket or grocery store case. Victims should understand how thoroughly they must detail their claim with evidence of what occurred. To build evidence, it’s critical to work quickly to save evidence that might exist, such as security video, identities of witnesses and logs of employee activity.