JANICE WHITWORTH, APPELLANT,
v.
WAL-MART STORES, INC., APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court reversed summary judgment in slip-and-fall case, holding that a plaintiff's proof of falling due to a transitory foreign substance creates a rebuttable presumption of negligence, shifting the burden to the defendant to prove reasonable care in premises maintenance.
Once a plaintiff establishes a fall caused by a transitory foreign substance on the premises, a rebuttable presumption of negligence arises, shifting the burden to the defendant to prove by greater weight of evidence that it exercised reasonable care in maintaining the premises.
[1] A plaintiff's proof of falling due to a transitory foreign substance on a business premises creates a rebuttable presumption of negligence, shifting the burden to the def…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the existence of a foreign substance on the floor of a business premises that causes a customer to fall and be injured is not a safe condition and the existence of that unsafe condition creates a rebuttable presumption that the premises owner did not maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition”
Florida Supreme Court's holding in Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc. regarding the legal effect of transitory foreign substances on business premises
Janice Whitworth fell on a foreign substance on the floor of a Wal-Mart store and was injured.…
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PER CURIAM.
In this slip and fall action, the trial court granted Appellee Wal-Mart’s motion for summary judgment based on the nonexistence of any genuine issue of material fact that Wal-Mart had actual or constructive notice of a dangerous condition. The trial court did not have the benefit of the Florida Supreme Court’s recent holding in Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 802 So. 2d 315 (Fla.2001),
that the existence of a foreign substance on the floor of a business premises that causes a customer to fall and be injured is not a safe condition and the existence of that unsafe condition creates a rebut-table presumption that the premises owner did not maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.
Thus, once the plaintiff establishes that he or she fell as a result of a transitory foreign substance, a rebuttable presumption of negligence arises. At that point, the burden shifts to the defendant to show by the greater weight of evi dence that it exercised reasonable care in the maintenance of the premises under the circumstances.
Accordingly, we REVERSE and REMAND for Appellee Wal-Mart to present evidence that it exercised reasonable care in maintaining its premises. Id. at 330-32.
BOOTH, WEBSTER and PADOVANO, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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D'Aquisto v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 816 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)…on. See, e.g., Bien-Aime v. Miami Dade County, 816 So. 2d 1176 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) (reversing and remanding summary judgment in slip-and-fall lawsuit in light of Owens which was announced while appeal was pending). Whitworth v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 805 So. 2d 1106 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002) (reversing and remanding summary judgment in slip-and-fall action in light of Owens as trial court did not have the benefit of Owens); Alvarez v. Food Lion, Inc., 805 So. 2d 1032 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (same).…
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Renita West v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 825 So. 2d 507 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002)…further proceedings. On remand, the trial court shall determine whether the case shall be governed by Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 802 So. 2d 315 (Fla.2001) or section 768.0710, Florida Statutes (2002). See Whitworth v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 805 So. 2d 1106 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002); Bien-Aime v. Miami-Dade County, 816 So. 2d 1176 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002); D'Aquisto v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 816 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002); Walker v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 821 So. 2d 335 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). REVERSED and…
Authorities Cited
- Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 802 So. 2d 315 (Fla. 2001)