Premises Liability Claim Rejected; Lack of Notice Required Dismissal
Plaintiff brought a premises liability lawsuit against a grocery store for negligence after suffering from a slip-and-fall over some spilled bleach. Plaintiff alleged the spill had been there for six minutes and the employees had been aware of it, but failed to act.
The store’s employees disagreed, and claimed they were unaware of the spill until Plaintiff fell. The area where the spill had occurred, the store employees testified, was obstructed by a variety of barriers, including customers and products on shelves. A Michigan federal judge sided with the defense, concluding that no reasonable jury would find that the employees had any actual or constructive notice of the spill.
Michigan’s premises liability law holds that property owners are responsible for any injuries caused by dangerous conditions on their property if they were negligent in maintaining it. The duty of care creates an obligation on the part of the premises owner (or possessor) to maintain the property. Plaintiffs have the burden of proof to show that the owner violated the duty of care, failed to warn or fix it, and a proximate cause between the owner’s negligence and the injury.
The spilled bleach was on the floor for approximately six minutes which, according to the Trial Court Judge was an insufficient amount of time to create constructive notice resulting in summary judgment for the defendants. Although there is no consensus on what exactly is an insufficient amount of time to constitute construction notice and/or an opportunity to discovery a defect, the Judge reasoned that Plaintiff did not produce any evidence that store staff had been alerted to the spill until the moment Plaintiff fell. Summary Judgment was granted to the store owner based on a lack of notice that the spill existed.
Read the entire case at:
Holland v. Family Dollar Stores of Michigan, LLC.
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-mied-4_24-cv-12296/USCOURTS-mied-4_24-cv-12296-0
About Alexander & Angelas, P.C.
Attorney Peter A. Angelas represents litigants in complex, high severity civil liability litigation across Michigan. His practice areas include automobile and trucking negligence claims, insurance litigation, premises liability, motor carrier liability, commercial litigation, construction defect litigation, insurance coverage disputes, emergency casualty response services, alternative dispute resolution, subrogationclaims, workers’ compensation, employment law, and marine liability.
Mr. Angelas practices in all state and federal courts in Michigan, including WayneCounty (Detroit), Macomb County (Mount Clemens), Oakland County (Pontiac),Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), and Genesee County (Flint).
A 24/7 Emergency Hotline is available (800-219-0007). When an accident requires an immediate response to protect evidence, members of the firm quickly launch aninvestigation with the assistance of well-qualified accident investigators, crash re-constructionists, mechanical engineers, civil evidence photographers, and independent adjusters positioned throughout Michigan.
