Johnson v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Johnson v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Opinion
This is a premises liability case concerning whether a retailer is negligent for failing to warn a customer about potential spills. The case began when Michael Johnson suffered injuries after he slipped and fell on a liquid while walking in the housewares department of a Wal-Mart store. Johnson knew neither the source of the substance, nor how long it had been on the floor. Additionally, none of Wal-Mart's surveillance cameras captured the initial spill or Johnson's fall. Johnson filed a complaint alleging Wal-Mart, which has issued an internal statement to its employees that spills are largely responsible for slip/trip/fall accidents in its stores, was negligent for failing to warn him of the potential for spills. Johnson claims that the store's business practice of allowing patrons to carry liquids throughout the store should have put Wal-Mart on notice that spills were foreseeable anywhere. Wal-Mart filed a motion for summary judgment based on its lack of actual or constructive notice of the spill. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Wal-Mart. We now affirm.
I. BACKGROUND
On June 30, 2015, Michael Johnson slipped on a liquid while walking in Wal-Mart Store 2508 on Overland Road in Boise. The aisle where Johnson slipped was in the housewares department near a display of trash cans. Johnson did not know the liquid's origin or how long it had been on the aisle floor. Wal-Mart's surveillance cameras did not capture either the spill or Johnson's slip.
Store practice permitted customers to carry liquids throughout the store-whether brought from outside or purchased in the store-without restriction. Wal-Mart did not warn its customers, including Johnson, of the danger they might encounter with spilled liquids while shopping. As a large retailer, Wal-Mart has institutional knowledge that spills occur and that those spills can lead to slip-and-fall accidents. Wal-Mart issued an internal message to employees acknowledging this, which stated, "Spills are largely responsible for slip/trip/fall accidents in the store. Slip/trip/fall accidents are included in the Big 3 accident focus and require additional focus to reduce these accident claims." However, Wal-Mart had no record of this particular spill and no record of any prior spills or accidents on the aisle where Johnson fell.
*1008 Johnson filed a complaint against Wal-Mart, alleging negligence and premises liability for failure to warn and for failure to keep the store in a safe condition. After engaging in discovery, Wal-Mart filed a motion for summary judgment which was granted. Johnson timely appealed.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
This Court reviews a grant of summary judgment under the same standard of review the district court originally applied in its ruling.
Conner v. Hodges
,
"If the moving party has demonstrated the absence of a question of material fact, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party to demonstrate an issue of material fact that will preclude summary judgment."
III. ANALYSIS
A. The district court did not err in granting summary judgment for Wal-Mart since no evidence demonstrates a genuine issue of material fact regarding Wal-Mart's liability for Johnson's fall.
Johnson contends that the district court improperly granted summary judgment because Wal-Mart failed to warn him that its business practices gave rise to a continuous or foreseeable dangerous condition. Johnson primarily bases this claim on two undisputed facts: (a) Wal-Mart allows patrons to carry liquids throughout the store without restriction, whether brought from outside, purchased at the in-store McDonalds, or purchased from Wal-Mart; and (b) Wal-Mart informs its employees that "spills are largely responsible for slip/trip/fall accidents in the store," and has procedures in place to detect and clean up spills. Additionally, Johnson claims that since two employees were in the general vicinity of where he slipped, it is reasonable to assign constructive knowledge of this particular spill.
Wal-Mart responds that no evidence exists in this case to show a continuous or foreseeable dangerous condition, much less that it was or should have been aware of such a condition. The fact that Wal-Mart alerts employees that spills are largely responsible for slips in the store does not, it claims, lead to the conclusion that slips or spills are a recurring problem. Wal-Mart further contends that no evidence demonstrates Wal-Mart had actual or constructive notice of the spill on which Johnson slipped.
Negligence in Idaho consists of four elements: "(1) a duty, recognized by law, requiring the defendant to conform to a certain standard of conduct; (2) a breach of that duty; (3) a causal connection between the defendant's conduct and the resulting injury; and (4) actual loss or damage."
Shea v. Kevic Corp.
,
The dangerous condition in premises liability can take one of two forms: (1) isolated or nonrecurring, or (2) continuing or recurring.
Shea
,
The prototypical "isolated" condition case in Idaho jurisprudence is
Tommerup v. Albertson's, Inc.
,
An invitee alleging a "continuous or recurring" condition, however, need not demonstrate actual or constructive knowledge of the
specific
condition.
Smith's Mgmt. Corp.
,
In summary, the invitee must show actual or constructive knowledge on behalf of the landowner to establish a prima facie negligence claim regardless of the nature of the condition. The distinction between an isolated and continuing condition does not eliminate the invitee's burden to establish the landowner's knowledge. In some cases it may be easier for the invitee to show knowledge when the alleged condition is recurring or continuous, but an allegation of a continuous condition does not extinguish the invitee's burden simply because the dangerous condition is regularly occurring. The invitee still must show that the landowner knew or should have known his operating methods caused or were likely to cause a dangerous condition.
This Court has decided a number of cases falling under the "operating methods" theory of liability. In
McDonald v. Safeway Stores, Inc.
,
Four days later, this Court decided
Smith's Management
. We concluded that a store's deteriorating parking lot-with potholes observed "in the entire parking lot" and the assistant manager aware of multiple holes near one of the store's entrances-created an issue of material fact that should have been submitted to a jury. 109 Idaho at 480-82,
More recently, we decided
Shea v. Kevic Corp
. There, a car wash patron sued for negligence after slipping on ice near the car wash's exit.
The evidence in this case is largely uncontested, and construed in Johnson's favor shows that: (1) Wal-Mart sells liquids and allows them in the store; (2) Wal-Mart has policies in place for employees to police certain high-traffic areas looking for spills; (3) Wal-Mart has recognized that spills are largely responsible for slip/trip/fall accidents in its stores; and (4) Johnson slipped in an aisle near a high-traffic area while employees were in the general vicinity.
Importantly, the district court analyzed Johnson's claim through both the "isolated" and "operating method" lenses, and found the evidentiary record lacking in support of either claim. We agree with the district court's well-reasoned decision. First, Johnson's evidence is insufficient to place this case into the "operating method" line of cases. Wal-Mart's missive to employees that spills are largely responsible for customers' slips in the store does not, without more, demonstrate a recurring or continuing condition caused by its operating method-much less
Shea
's requirement that Wal-Mart knew of such a condition.
The instant case is more like the isolated condition in
Tommerup
than our "operating method" cases. While a pothole may form in almost any parking lot, children perhaps often drop wet or sticky items on the ground, and ice forms whenever water reaches too cold a temperature, those cases all had something more than the particular hazard on that particular day (knowledge that potholes saturated the parking lot, ice cream sitting long enough to melt after being handed out to children, instructions to de-ice a specific area with known ice buildup). As with
Tommerup
, the record here is "devoid of evidence indicating the condition which caused appellant's injury to have been other than an isolated incident."
This Court agrees, and that "something more" is missing in this case. To hold otherwise would mean every store that deals in liquids and has a cleanup policy recognizing the dangerousness of spills would be liable for every spill anywhere in the store almost instantly. This is not the law in Idaho. Johnson has failed to provide more than a scintilla of evidence for his contention that Wal-Mart's allowance of liquids in its store, combined with the acknowledgement that spills are a potential danger to customers, generally *1011 imputes knowledge of a recurring or continuing dangerous condition.
On the isolated condition theory of liability, Johnson also contends that evidence of the spill's location, as well as two employees' proximity to it, created a genuine issue of material fact as to constructive notice of this specific spill. Constructive notice is simply knowledge of a condition that the exercise of reasonable care would have revealed.
Smith's Mgmt. Corp.
, 109 Idaho at 481,
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court affirms the district court's summary judgment grant in favor of Wal-Mart. Costs to Respondent.
Chief Justice BURDICK, Justices HORTON, BEVAN, and Justice Pro Tem LORELLO concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Michael JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WAL-MART STORES, INC., a Delaware Corporation, Doing Business as Wal-Mart Super Center and Wal-Mart; Wal-Mart Associates, Inc., a Delaware Corporation; And Wal-Mart Store No. 2508, Defendants-Respondents.
- Cited By
- 11 cases
- Status
- Published