Carolyn Slack v. Brookshire Grocery D/B/A Super One Foods

Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided October 22, 2025·No. 56,446-CW·Published

Opinion

Judgment rendered October 22, 2025.

Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by Art. 2166, La. C.C.P.

No. 56,446-CW

COURT OF APPEAL

SECOND CIRCUIT

STATE OF LOUISIANA

*****

CAROLYN SLACK Respondent versus

BROOKSHIRE GROCERY Applicant COMPANY D/B/A SUPER ONE FOODS

*****

On Application for Writs from the Fourth Judicial District Court for the Parish of Ouachita, Louisiana Trial Court No. 20220953

Honorable Frederick Douglass Jones, Judge

*****

HUDSON, POTTS & BERNSTEIN, LLP Counsel for Applicant By: Donald H. Zeigler, III

OFFICE OF ANTHONY J. BRUSCATO Counsel for Respondent By: Anthony J. Bruscato

CATHERINE LEARY

*****

Before PITMAN, COX, and ROBINSON, JJ.

ROBINSON, J.

In this slip-and-fall case, Brookshire Grocery Company d/b/a Super One Foods (“Brookshire”) applied for a supervisory writ with this court after the trial court denied its motion for summary judgment. The writ was granted to docket. Concluding that a genuine issue of material fact exists concerning whether Brookshire created the hazardous condition, we recall the writ as improvidently granted and deny it. The judgment denying the motion for summary judgment is affirmed.

FACTS

On the morning of November 10, 2021, an unidentified customer (“customer”) picked up an order of 200 baked chicken pieces at the deli counter at the Super One Foods grocery store in Monroe, Louisiana. The chicken had been placed into four trays with chicken grease added to keep the pieces moist. The trays, which were each covered by aluminum foil tucked along the edges, were placed in the customer’s shopping cart. Three trays were stacked in the upper compartment, and one tray was placed in the undercarriage compartment.

While the customer was waiting for her turn at a store checkout counter, chicken grease leaked from at least one tray and deposited on the floor. Several minutes later, Carolyn Slack slipped and fell in the grease when she approached the checkout counter.

On December 9, 2021, Slack filed suit in Monroe City Court against Brookshire. She alleged that the hazardous floor condition was created in whole or in part by the failure of the store employees to properly secure the pan of chicken.

Brookshire filed a motion to transfer the case to the Fourth Judicial District in Ouachita Parish. The motion to transfer was granted.

Slack propounded a discovery request for Brookshire to produce “all video that captured the incident in question.” On November 21, 2022, Brookshire objected to production of the video on the grounds that the video constituted sensitive trade secrets and disclosure would jeopardize the store’s anti-fraud and anti-theft measures. Brookshire agreed to turn over the video upon the entry of a protective order. Slack filed a motion to compel.

While the discovery issue concerning the video was still pending, Brookshire filed a motion for summary judgment on March 10, 2023. Brookshire argued that Slack could not meet her burden of proving the notice element of her claim because there was no proof that it had actual or constructive notice that the chicken grease was on the floor or that it had created the condition by placing or allowing the grease to leak onto the floor. In support of its motion, Brookshire submitted an affidavit from the store’s assistant manager, an affidavit from the store’s deli manager, and Slack’s petition.

Darwin Spears, the store’s assistant manager who was on duty at the time of the incident, stated in his affidavit that Slack had slipped on chicken grease which had leaked from a customer’s shopping cart. He determined that the customer was at the incident location at approximately 11:18 a.m., and that Slack fell at approximately 11:21 a.m. He determined that no store employee passed through the area after the customer was at the incident location and before Slack fell. Spears asserted that he did not place the grease on the floor or allow it to be placed on the floor, and that he had no

knowledge that the grease was on the floor before Slack fell. Spears stated that neither he nor any other store employee had possession or control of the chicken pan when it leaked while in the customer’s possession. To his knowledge, no store employee knew of the grease being on the floor before Slack fell, no store employee knew how long the grease was on the floor before Slack fell, and no store employee placed or allowed the grease to be on the floor before Slack fell.

Nancy Conway, the store’s deli manager, stated in her affidavit that she had prepared and packaged the pan of chicken in a safe manner, and that the pan was not leaking any substance, including chicken grease, while it was in her possession and under her control. Conway asserted that the pan was not leaking or showing any indication that it might leak when she transferred the pan to the customer, and that the pan was in a good and safe condition when it left her possession and control. Conway stated that neither she nor any other store employee had possession or control of the chicken pan when it leaked while in the customer’s possession, and she did not place the grease on the floor or allow it to be placed on the floor before Slack fell. Conway also stated that she had no knowledge that the grease had been on the floor before Slack fell. To Conway’s knowledge, no store employee knew of the grease being on the floor before Slack fell, no store employee knew how long the grease was on the floor before Slack fell, and no store employee placed or allowed the grease to be on the floor before Slack fell.

On June 22, 2023, the trial court granted Slack’s motion to compel production of the video subject to a protective order.

On January 2, 2025, Brookshire filed a supplemental memorandum in support of its motion for summary judgment. Excerpts from Slack’s

December 16, 2024, deposition were attached to the supplemental memorandum. Slack testified that she did not know if store employees knew the grease was on the floor before she fell, and she did not know how long the substance was on the floor.

On January 21, 2025, Slack filed her opposition to the motion for summary judgment. She argued that the store created the puddle when Conway failed to exercise reasonable care in packaging and stacking the chicken pans. She also argued that the video showed Spears looking at the puddle of grease on the floor and not taking precautionary measures before Slack fell. Slack attached Conway’s deposition, Spears’s deposition, the store’s accident report, photos taken by Spears at the scene, the store’s video of the incident, still frames taken from the store’s video, and a chronology prepared by her attorney.

Nancy Conway testified at her March 30, 2023, deposition that she had worked in the deli for 19 years. The deli is located in the rear of the store. She recalled that the order prepared for the customer was for a church which frequently ordered chicken. The order was for 200 mixed pieces of baked chicken. The round pans used to hold the chicken pieces were the largest in the store. She likened them to jumbo roasting pans. Each pan held 50 pieces of chicken.

Conway explained that the grease came from smoking the chicken.

She poured the grease into the bottom of the pans to keep the chicken moist. When asked how deep the grease was in each pan, she used a finger and a thumb to indicate the depth. The pans did not have lids, so she used heavy- duty aluminum foil to cover the pans and tucked it in along the edges. The foil was along the top and sides of each pan, but not the bottom.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Carolyn Slack v. Brookshire Grocery D/B/A Super One Foods, (La. Ct. App. 2025).

Carolyn Slack v. Brookshire Grocery D/B/A Super One Foods (Carolyn Slack v. Brookshire Grocery D/B/A Super One Foods) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Samaha v. Rau
977 So. 2d 880 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2008)
White v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
699 So. 2d 1081 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1997)
Independent Fire Ins. Co. v. Sunbeam Corp.
755 So. 2d 226 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2000)
Schexnayder v. Gish
948 So. 2d 1259 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007)
Ross v. Schwegmann Giant Super Markets, Inc.
734 So. 2d 910 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1999)