Dvorak v. Target Corporation

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 21, 2019
Docket1:16-cv-08773
StatusUnknown

This text of Dvorak v. Target Corporation (Dvorak v. Target Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dvorak v. Target Corporation, (N.D. Ill. 2019).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION KRISTEN DVORAK, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) Case No. 16-cv-08773 Vv. ) ) Judge Charles R. Norgle TARGET CORPORATION, ) a Minnesota corporation, ) ) Defendant. ) OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiff Kristen Dvorak (‘Plaintiff’) brings this premises liability action against Defendant Target Corporation (“Defendant” or “Target”) for injuries sustained by Plaintiff when she fell at Defendant’s place of business in Hillside, Illinois. Before the Court is Defendant’s motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, Defendant’s motion is denied. I. BACKGROUND! On August 11, 2014, Plaintiff was a customer at the Super Target located at 130 South Mannheim Road, Hillside, Illinois (the “Store’’). Plaintiff, who was accompanied by her boyfriend, Christopher Ramos (“Mr. Ramos”), entered the Store around 2 p.m. At approximately 2:54 p.m., Plaintiff and Mr. Ramos walked down the main aisle separating the cosmetics and grocery sections. Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff and Mr. Ramos turned right to proceed down one of the grocery aisles (the “Grocery Aisle”). At this time, the Grocery Aisle was blocked by two shopping carts and there was an unknown individual standing next to one of the shopping carts who was dressed in a red shirt and khaki pants, which is consistent with the official uniform of Target

' The following undisputed facts were taken from Defendant’s LR 56.1 Amended Statement of Material Facts (“Def.’s SOMF”); Plaintiff's Response to Defendant’s LR 56.1 Statement of Material Facts (“Pl.’s Resp. to Def.’s SOMF”); and Plaintiff's Statement of Additional Facts (“Pl.’s SOAF”).

employees. Mr. Ramos proceeded into the Grocery Aisle first and moved one of the shopping carts. At the same time, the second shopping cart was moved out of the Grocery Aisle and into the main aisle by the unknown individual wearing the Target employee uniform. Plaintiff then took several steps forward, slipped on a yellow-green liquid on the floor (the “Spill”), and fell forward to the ground. Plaintiff was injured when she fell.? Although Mr. Ramos did not see Plaintiff fall, he immediately came to her aid and documented the area by taking photos and videos. Plaintiff remained on the ground for approximately fifteen minutes after she fell, until she was taken away by paramedics on a stretcher. Neither Plaintiff nor Mr. Ramos saw the Spill before Plaintiff fell. After she fell, however, Mr. Ramos observed what he believed to be Powerade or Gatorade (hereinafter, “Gatorade”’) on the floor of the Grocery Aisle. Moreover, Mr. Ramos testified at his deposition that after Plaintiff fell, he observed a broken Gatorade bottle in one of the two shopping carts that was blocking the Grocery Aisle immediately preceding Plaintiff's fall, and that the contents of the Gatorade bottle were dripping onto the ground. Mr. Ramos stated that the Spill covered an area on the floor of approximately three to six feet in length in the middle of the Grocery Aisle, in the area where Plaintiff fell. Mr. Ramos further stated that he did not see anyone place the broken Gatorade bottle in the shopping cart and that he had no way of determining how long the Spill existed before Plaintiffs fall. As for Plaintiff, she testified at her deposition that she did not know the cause of the Spill. She also stated that she did not how long the Spill existed before she fell. Defendant has submitted three photos and two videos that were taken by Mr. Ramos after Plaintiff's fall. One of the photos was taken by Mr. Ramos immediately after Plaintiff's fall and

2 The exact nature and extent of Plaintiff's injuries are immaterial for purposes of the instant motion.

shows multiple puddles of yellow-green liquid on the floor of the Grocery Aisle. The other two photos and the two videos were taken by Mr. Ramos after a Target employee cleaned up the Spill, and therefore show only residue of the Spill. None of the pictures or videos show the broken and leaking Gatorade bottle that Mr. Ramos testified he saw after Plaintiff's fall. Further, neither party asserts that the pictures or videos are useful in determining how long the Spill existed before Plaintiff's fall, i.e., the photos and videos do not show any footprints or marks from the wheels of a shopping cart in the yellow-green liquid. Multiple Target employees were working near the Grocery Aisle before, during, and after Plaintiff's fall, including Lydia Molina (“Ms. Molina”), Monisola Oyeniyi (“Ms. Oyeniyi”), and Zkeyana Harris (“Ms. Harris”). At the time of Plaintiff's fall, Ms. Molina was working in the main aisle, two aisles away from the Grocery Aisle, performing “reshop™; Ms. Oyeniyi was working one aisle away from the Grocery Aisle in the grocery section; and Ms. Harris was performing “reshop” in the cosmetics section directly across the main aisle from the Grocery Aisle. Despite their proximity to Plaintiff when she fell, all three employees testified at their depositions that they did not witness Plaintiff's fall. They also testified that: they did not know the cause of the Spill; they were not aware of the Spill before Plaintiff's fall; and they did not know how long the Spill existed before Plaintiff's fall. Shortly after Plaintiffs fall, Target employee Alan Sternisha (“Mr. Sternisha”), the Store’s executive team member, investigated Plaintiff's fall and completed an investigation report (the “Report”). Def.’s SOMF, Ex. M. Mr. Sternisha stated in the Report that Plaintiff “slipped on a spill which was lime green” and that he had “found a half drank Gatorade in the next aisle that matched

3 The term “reshop” refers to the employee activity of placing good merchandise that had been left at customer service or elsewhere in the Store back on the shelves.

the spill.” Id. At his deposition, however, Mr. Sternisha stated that he had no way of determining whether the half-empty Gatorade bottle that he found was in fact the cause of the Spill. Perhaps the most illuminating evidence in this case is the surveillance video (the “Video”) that captured the events surrounding and including Plaintiff's fall.4 The Video was recorded by a Store surveillance camera that primarily covers the cosmetics section adjacent to the grocery section where Plaintiff fell. However, the portion of the Grocery Aisle where Plaintiff fell is visible near the top frame of the Video. Given the valuable nature of such documentary evidence, the Court will provide a summary of the Video, including multiple still frames taken from the Video.° The Video begins at 2 p.m. on August 11, 2014. At approximately 2:24 p.m., an unknown Target employee® begins performing “reshop” in the cosmetic section. At 2:25:54 p.m., an unknown Target employee pushes a shopping cart into the Grocery Aisle and leaves it in the area where Plaintiff would later fall. This shopping cart remained in the same area until Plaintiffs fall, approximately 30 minutes later. At 2:31:09 p.m., Plaintiff walks down the Grocery Aisle, directly through the area where she would later slip and fall. Plaintiff testified at her deposition that she did not see any liquid on the floor at this time. At 2:50:58 p.m., an unknown male Target employee walks through the Grocery Aisle directly over the area where Plaintiff would later slip and fall. He walks down Grocery Aisle

* The Video has been authenticated through the testimony of numerous deponents, including the testimony of Maria Recendez, who was a “Protection Specialist” at Target at the time of Plaintiff's fall and was responsible for retrieving the Video of Plaintiff's fall from Target’s surveillance system. See Federal Rule of Evidence 901. >

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Bluebook (online)
Dvorak v. Target Corporation, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dvorak-v-target-corporation-ilnd-2019.