Elizabeth v. Clearview Supermarket

562 So. 2d 961, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 1405, 1990 WL 68956
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 21, 1990
DocketNo. 89-CA-319
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 562 So. 2d 961 (Elizabeth v. Clearview Supermarket) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elizabeth v. Clearview Supermarket, 562 So. 2d 961, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 1405, 1990 WL 68956 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

GAUDIN, Judge.

Mrs. Elizabeth Doran slipped and fell in the Clearview Supermarket in Metairie, Louisiana. A civil jury in the 24th Judicial District Court set damages at $315,725.00 and assigned negligence thusly: Mrs. Do-ran, seven per cent; Clearview Supermarket, 73 per cent; and Jani-King, a janitorial service, 20 per cent. Mrs. Doran’s husband, Luke, was awarded $10,000.00 for loss of consortium. The supermarket appealed.

Prior to trial in September, 1988, the Dorans and Jani-King had entered into a compromise settlement and this defendant was dismissed by court order.

On appeal, Clearview contends that it was not negligent and that the awards to Mr. and Mrs. Doran were improper. Also, appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying the supermarket’s claim for indemnity from Jani-King.

For the following reasons, we affirm the various assessments of negligence and we affirm the award to Mrs. Doran. The award to Mr. Doran was not supported by any meaningful evidence and it is set aside. We also void any judgment regarding indemnity as Jani-King was dismissed from the district court proceedings, did not take part in the trial and is not now before this Court on appeal.

THE ACCIDENT

Mrs. Doran was 29 years of age when she testified at trial in 1988. She said that on May 10, 1985, at approximately 8 a.m., she went to Clearview Supermarket to purchase diapers for her daughter. At that time, William Ford, Jani-King’s franchise owner, and a helper were waxing and polishing the supermarket’s terrazzo floor, a chore performed, according to contract, once a month.

Ford testified that he had placed pyramid-type caution signs throughout the store. The signs, Ford said, were four or five feet high but they were not put in the center of any aisle “... because I never blocked any of the aisles ... I wasn’t permitted to block the aisles so people couldn’t come in ... I did not want to hinder the business.”

The signs, Ford stated, were always in plain view of the manager and other supermarket employees. Ford testified that he was never instructed to totally block off an aisle being waxed or polished. In any event, Mrs. Doran said that when she entered the store and proceeded down an aisle, she did not see any caution signs. She was in the process of walking past a display rack in the center of an aisle when she slipped and fell. She said:

“When I fell, I hit this Daiquiri rack, which is in the middle of this short aisle
“I walked and I fell, I was in a sitting position. I had fallen on my buttocks
“When I got up ... a customer there, a little old lady there, she helped me up. And she was pulling my dress down. My dress was damp. It was moist.”

Ford said that waxing and polishing of the area where Mrs. Doran fell had been completed 15 or 20 minutes before the accident. Ford stated that he didn’t know if the floor at that spot had dried. Asked if he looked at the floor after Mrs. Doran fell, Ford said: “No, I did not.”

[963]*963Brian Duhe, a supermarket stock boy, said that Jani-King people were working in the area where and when Mrs. Doran fell. Duhe also remembered that the floor was what he called “wet.”

Mrs. Doran explained that because of her prior back surgeries, she was cautious and would have noticed a warning sign had one been there. She said:

“... if I fall I am going to hurt myself in some kind of a way. So, I try — if I walked somewhere, and it is wet, and I am going inside, I always wipe my feet because I don’t want to fall, I don’t want to have to go through surgery again. I don’t want to do anything that is going to make me go through something that is painful, that is very uncomfortable, and it’s a nightmare. So, if there was a sign there, I would have never walked through that place because I don’t think I am dumb enough to do that to myself, and put myself in jeopardy after nine months post-op when everything is starting to look great for me, to walk somewhere where it is dangerous for me.”

No doubt the jury was convinced that a foreign or unexpected substance on the floor caused Mrs. Doran to slip. Once this was established, the burden shifted to the supermarket to exculpate itself from negligence by showing that it had discharged its duty in recognizing and correcting a dangerous condition reasonably anticipated in the course of business. See Brown v. Winn Dixie Louisiana, Inc., 452 So.2d 685 (La.1984), and Cascio v. Continental Casualty Company, 547 So.2d 743 (La.App. 4 Cir.1989).

The instant jury in answers to interrogatories submitted to it, found both Clearview and Jani-King negligent, likely because the floors were being waxed and polished during regular business hours and/or because the wet, slippery areas were not effectively closed to customer traffic. The jury could have decided that the caution signs were negligently positioned. Regardless, the record supports the findings of negligence and a finding that neither defendant had proved that it had- discharged a duty owed to Mrs. Doran.

In allotting the percentage of negligence under LSA-C.C. art. 2323, the jurors had wide discretion under the facts and circumstances of this case. They found Mrs. Doran seven per cent negligent although the record would support a finding of no negligence or a higher degree of negligence on her part. Likewise, the percentage of negligence attributed to Clear-view and Jani-King could have been different; however, the negligence attributed— 73 per cent to the supermarket and 20 per cent to the janitorial service — was within the jury’s discretion and not clearly erroneous. It is plausible that the jurors found Clearview more responsible because the supermarket had ownership and supervisory control over when and how the waxing and polishing would be done.

MRS. DORAN’S INJURIES

Prior to May 10, 1985, Mrs. Doran had back problems and was in a sensitive, vulnerable position when she fell in the supermarket. As a result of an automobile accident in 1981, she had had two back operations. She had a lumbar spinal fusion on May 27, 1982, in which her own bone was used for the graft; and on August 28, 1984, Mrs. Doran underwent an anterior lumbar fusion with bone taken from a bone bank. Two discs were removed.

Dr. Henry LaRocca, an orthopedic surgeon who performed both operations, testified that although both grafts were in place in May, 1985 and that Mrs. Doran was no longer experiencing back muscle spasms, the healing process from the August, 1984 surgery was not complete. The healing process, Dr. LaRocca said, takes about 18 months and that Mrs. Doran, in May, 1985, was “... in a situation of vulnerability.”

When Dr. LaRocca saw Mrs. Doran on May 13, 1985, he found spasm in her back and tenderness and he said that Mrs. Do-ran was in “... a lot more pain.” Eventually Dr. LaRocca recommended that steel spinal plates be inserted in Mrs. Doran’s back to relieve what he called “... bone grinding on bone.” Dr. LaRocca stated:

[964]*964“... as time went by, after May, she continued to have a good deal of pain. She picked up the use of a pain pill back to four or five times a day. And had on x-ray definite evidence that the 4-5, L-4-5 fusion, did not unite.”

Mrs.

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Related

Hoback v. KMart Corp.
628 So. 2d 1258 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1993)
Doran v. Clearview Supermarket
568 So. 2d 1062 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
562 So. 2d 961, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 1405, 1990 WL 68956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elizabeth-v-clearview-supermarket-lactapp-1990.