ANNET ASHER AND ALI ASHER, APPELLANTS,
v.
WAL-MART STORES, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2010-07-07
No. 3D08-1160
Before SHEPHERD and SALTER, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.
39 So. 3d 484 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2010)

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Holding

The court held that the trial judge erred in granting a new trial because the grounds asserted were waived, barred by the two-issue rule, and the jury instruction was legally correct and supported by evidence.


Facts & Procedural History

A patron slipped and fell on a wet floor at Wal-Mart. A jury found both parties partially liable. The trial judge granted a new trial, finding he had …

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Opinion of the Court
SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

While a patron at a Wal-Mart, Ms. Ash-er slipped and fell on a wet area on the floor. After a jury found Wal-Mart and the plaintiff seventy-five and twenty-five per-cent respectively liable, the trial judge granted a new trial on the ground that he had erroneously instructed the jury on a “negligent mode of operation” theory he found unjustified by the evidence.1 For several reasons, we reverse:

*485(1) The ground asserted was not raised at trial and was therefore waived. See Sears Roebuck v. Jackson, 433 So.2d 1319 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983);

(2) Review of the point is barred by the two-issue rule because of an unobjected to general verdict and ample evidence of alternative theories of liability. See Colonial Stores, Inc. v. Scarbrough, 355 So.2d 1181 (Fla.1977); Chua v. Hilbert, 846 So.2d 1179 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003); Marriott Int’l, Inc. v. Perez-Melendez, 855 So.2d 624 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003); Variety Children’s Hosp. v. Perkins, 382 So.2d 331 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); and

(3) On the merits, the charge in question both was legally correct and supported by competent evidence of the store’s practice of unsupervised handling of its shopping carts resulting in water being shaken onto the floor. See Markowitz v. Helen Homes of Kendall Corp., 826 So.2d 256 (Fla.2002).

Accordingly, the order on appeal is reversed and the cause remanded for entry of judgment on the verdict.

Reversed and remanded.


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