Contreras v. Walmart Stores East, LP

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedNovember 22, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-00208
StatusUnknown

This text of Contreras v. Walmart Stores East, LP (Contreras v. Walmart Stores East, LP) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Contreras v. Walmart Stores East, LP, (M.D. Fla. 2024).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA FORT MYERS DIVISION

BRENDA PABLO CONTRERAS,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No.: 2:23-cv-208-SPC-NPM

WAL-MART STORES EAST, L.P.,

Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER Before the Court are Defendant Walmart Stores East, L.P.’s Motion for Final Summary Judgment (Doc. 42), Plaintiff Brenda Pablo Contreras’s response in opposition (Doc. 50), and Defendant’s reply (Doc. 52). For the following reasons, the Court grants summary judgment. BACKGROUND1 This is a slip and fall case. In May 2020, Plaintiff entered Defendant’s liquor store in Naples, Florida without issue. She saw nothing on the sidewalk on her way into the store. Plaintiff was in the store between five and fifteen minutes and purchased three or four bottles, which she carried out in a bag. As she left the store, Plaintiff looked toward her car, slipped on a “purplish brownish” substance with “little tiny seeds in it” on the sidewalk, and fell to

1 All citations to docketed materials are to the document and page numbers in the CM/ECF header, which sometimes differ from a document’s internal pagination. the ground. She saw nothing on the sidewalk just before she fell. Nor did Plaintiff know what the substance was, where it came from, how long it had

been on the sidewalk before she fell, or its temperature. She also did not have a shopping cart when she fell. Defendant’s employees photographed the scene after Plaintiff reported it but before cleaning the area. According to Defendant’s policies and procedures, its employees are

trained and tasked with inspecting and maintaining the premises—including the sidewalks—on an ongoing basis. Additionally, members of management perform exterior tours at least three times a day to ensure that the parking lot and sidewalk are well maintained.

Christian Tecuanapa, a Walmart cart pusher at the time of Plaintiff’s fall, completed training on Defendant’s policies and procedures when he was hired. His training included how to maintain and ensure a safe, clean parking lot and sidewalk and to immediately report any spill or substance he saw.

Tecuanapa was getting carts near the incident area approximately twenty minutes before Plaintiff slipped and fell and did not see the substance on the sidewalk. When Plaintiff fell, Tecuanapa was outside the store on his break. He could see the location where Plaintiff fell, but he did not see her fall

or the substance on the ground. LEGAL STANDARD Sitting in diversity, the Court applies Florida substantive and federal

procedural law. Global Quest, LLC v. Horizon Yachts Inc., 849 F.3d 1022, 1027 (11th Cir. 2017). “The court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). A fact is

“material” if it “might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986). And a material fact is in genuine dispute “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Id.

The moving party bears the initial burden to show the lack of genuinely disputed material fact. Shiver v. Chertoff, 549 F.3d 1342, 1343 (11th Cir. 2008). If carried, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party to point out a genuine dispute. Boyle v. City of Pell City, 866 F.3d 1280, 1288 (11th Cir.

2018). At this stage, a court views all facts and draws all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Rojas v. Florida, 285 F.3d 1339, 1341–42 (11th Cir. 2002). An inference deduced from the evidence must be “reasonable” to create

a genuine dispute of material fact. Berbridge v. Sam’s E., Inc., 728 F. App’x 929, 932 (11th Cir. 2018) (citing Daniels v. Twin Oaks Nursing Home, 692 F.2d 1321, 1326 (11th Cir. 1982)). To be reasonable, the inference needs to be more than “a guess or mere possibility.” Id. Florida state courts guard against unreasonable inferences by prohibiting “inference stacking,” the practice of

making an inference “which has been superimposed upon an initial inference supported by circumstantial evidence.” Little v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 234 So. 2d 132, 134 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1970) (citing Voelker v. Combined Ins. Co. of Am., 73 So. 2d 403 (Fla. 1954)). While federal courts do not prohibit

inference stacking,2 the more inferences are stacked upon one another, the less likely the conclusion is that “reasonable and fair-minded [people] in the exercise of impartial judgment might draw from the evidence.” Daniels, 692 F.2d at 1326.

DISCUSSION Slip and falls are a form of negligence, so a plaintiff must show duty, breach, causation, and damages. Oliver v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 291 So. 3d 126, 128 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2020). A business owes an invitee two duties: (1)

to keep the premises reasonably safe; and (2) to warn of dangers the business knew (or should have known) about that the invitee couldn’t discover. Norman v. DCI Biologicals Dunedin, LLC, 301 So. 3d 425, 428 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2020). In a premises liability case, a business must have “actual or constructive

2 Berbridge, 728 F. App’x at 932 (explaining that while federal courts are not bound to apply state law rules against inference stacking, state court decisions on summary judgment “may still be highly informative” and “[federal courts] aim to reach the same result that the Florida courts would reach based on the same facts”). knowledge of the dangerous condition.” Fla. Stat. § 768.0755(1). The burden is on the plaintiff to make that notice showing. Encarnacion v. Lifemark

Hosps. of Fla., 211 So. 3d 275, 278 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2017). A. Actual Notice Actual notice of a dangerous condition exists when a business owner’s employees or agents know of or create the dangerous condition. Barbour v.

Brinker Fla., Inc., 801 So. 2d 953, 957 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2001). “When the negligence which produces the injury is that of an employee of the defendant, then the matter of the employer’s knowledge of the existence of the dangerous condition becomes inconsequential because the knowledge of the employee is

chargeable against the employer and his negligent act committed in the course of his employment is binding upon the employer.” Id. Defendant asserts “there is no record evidence that Walmart, or any of its employees, caused the condition to be on the floor or knew that it was

present at any time before the incident.” (Doc. 42 at 12). By contrast, Plaintiff vaguely argues “[t]he facts set forth above present multiple scenarios that create a question of fact as to whether . . . Walmart had constructive or perhaps actual notice of the substance’s existence.” (Doc. 50 at 16 (emphasis added)).

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