Foust v. Home Depot USA, Inc.

166 F. Supp. 3d 881, 2016 WL 795924, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25129
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedFebruary 29, 2016
DocketCivil Case No. 14-13571
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 166 F. Supp. 3d 881 (Foust v. Home Depot USA, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foust v. Home Depot USA, Inc., 166 F. Supp. 3d 881, 2016 WL 795924, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25129 (E.D. Mich. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

LINDA V. PARKER, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit in state court against Defendant Home Depot USA, Inc., d/b/a The Home Depot (“Defendant”), after Plaintiff Theresa Foust (“Mrs. Foust”) fell after tripping on a display cart at Defendant’s store in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Defendant removed the action to federal court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction on September 15, 2014. In the Complaint, Mrs. Foust asserts premises liability (Count I) and negligence (Count II) claims against Defendant. Her husband, Ronald Foust, asserts a derivative loss of consortium claim against Defendant (Count III). Presently before the Court is Defendant’s motion for summary judgment, filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. The motion has been fully briefed. (ECF Nos. 20, 21.) Finding the facts and legal arguments sufficiently presented in the parties’ pleadings, the Court is dispensing with oral argument with respect to Defendant’s motion pursuant to Eastern District of Michigan Local Rule 7.1(f). For the reasons that follow, the Court is granting in part and denying in part Defendant’s motion.

I. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 is appropriate “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). The central inquiry is “whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). After adequate time for discovery and upon motion, Rule 56 mandates summary judgment against a party who fails to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case and on which that party bears the burden of proof at trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

The movant has the initial burden of showing “the absence of a genuine issue of material fact.” Id. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548. Once the movant meets this burden, the “nonmoving party must come forward with specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Matsushita Electric Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). To demonstrate a genuine issue, the nonmoving party must present sufficient evidence upon which a jury could reasonably find for that party; a “scintilla [884]*884of evidence” is insufficient. See Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

“A party asserting that a fact cannot be or is genuinely disputed” must designate specifically the materials in the record supporting the assertion, “including depositions, documents, electronically stored information, affidavits or declarations, stipulations, admissions, interrogatory answers, or other materials.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1). The court must accept as true the non-movant’s evidence and draw “all justifiable inferences” in the non-movant’s favor. See Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

II. Factual Background

On June 3, 2014, at around 4:45 p.m., Mrs. Foust visited Defendant’s Home Depot store in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where her daughter was working as a cashier. While waiting for her daughter to get off work at 5:00 p.m., Mrs. Foust traveled to an aisle of the store to look at blinds for her home. Mrs. Foust entered the aisle at the end closest to the front of the store, without any difficulty, and browsed the aisle. As she returned down the same aisle to the front of the store, her left shoe “caught” what she now assumes was the “bottom part” of a conversion cart situated just inside the aisle, which caused her to fall. Mrs. Foust fell to the ground onto her right hip, causing a comminuted fracture of the right femur requiring open reduction and internal fixation of the right hip.

The conversion cart, or “wing stack”, is an “L” shaped metal cart with a 2'x 2' base and a 51" tall pegboard on which sales material is displayed. (ECF No. 19, Ex. 4 at Answers 3 and 4; Ex. 3.) The base and pegboard piece are dark grey in color. (Id., Ex. 3.) At the time of the incident at issue, packaged products were displayed hanging from the pegboard and standing on the base. (Id.) The product on the base did not cover the entire base. (Id.) The aisle floor is a grey colored concrete, which the store’s Manager, John Okar, described during his deposition in this matter as a lighter grey than the conversion cart. (ECF No. 20, Ex. F at 14.) Teri Ann Niekson-Nye, Mrs. Foust’s daughter who works at the Home Depot, testified that the cart and color of the aisle floor are similar in color. (Id., Ex. I at 33, 35-36.)

Home Depot employees had moved the conversion cart from the aisle’s end cap to the first upright inside the aisle several days earlier to follow a special event floor plan distributed by the corporate office. (Id., Ex. 4, Answer to No. 6.) According to Home Depot’s practice, when moved into an aisleway, the conversion cart is placed at a forty-five degree (45) angle to enable customers to get around the cart to reach product placed on the aisle shelves. (ECF No. 20, Ex. F at 36.) The aisles are approximately eight to ten feet wide. (Id. at 53; Ex. C at 76.) The distance between the closest base corner of the display unit to the permanent retail racking located on the opposite side of the aisle is approximately five feet. (ECF No. 19, Ex. 4, Answer to no. 17.) Mrs. Foust agreed with defense counsel during her deposition that there was “plenty of room” to walk through the aisle without encountering the cart. (Id. Ex. C at 79.) There was no one else attempting to enter or exit the aisle when Mrs. Foust’s incident occurred. (Id. at 76.)

There is no evidence that the conversion cart had been moved by an employee or customer before Mrs. Foust’s fall. (ECF No. 19, Ex. 4 Answer to No. 9.) Nevertheless, at her deposition in this matter, Mrs. Foust did not recall seeing or looking to see if there were any free standing displays and she did not see the display before she fell. (ECF No. 20, Ex. C at 69, 71.) She also had no memory of looking toward the floor to observe any obstruc[885]*885tions in her path before she fell. (Id. at 69.) Instead, Mrs. Foust recalled looking to her right at whatever was displayed in the aisle and to the front of the store where her daughter was situated at her cashier station immediately before she tripped and fell. (Id.

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Bluebook (online)
166 F. Supp. 3d 881, 2016 WL 795924, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foust-v-home-depot-usa-inc-mied-2016.