Hartford v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

765 So. 2d 1081, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 3459, 2000 WL 675554
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 16, 2000
DocketNo. 99 CA 0753
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 765 So. 2d 1081 (Hartford v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) 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
Hartford v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 765 So. 2d 1081, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 3459, 2000 WL 675554 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

| THIBODEAUX, Judge.

Dale Hartford slipped in rainwater and fell in the Wal-Mart store in Franklin, Louisiana. She sustained injuries to her right knee and lower back. After a bench trial on the merits, the trial court apportioned fault for the accident between Wal-Mart, eighty-five percent, and Mrs. Hartford, fifteen percent. Mrs. Hartford was awarded $25,000.00 in general damages, $9,467.61 in medical expenses, and $580.00 in special damages for household and yard work. David Hartford, Mrs. Hartford’s husband, was awarded $1,500.00 for loss of consortium.

Wal-Mart appeals. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

'ISSUES

We shall consider:

1. whether the trial court erred when it found that Wal-Mart had constructive notice of the condition and failed . to timely clean the substance, which resulted in the plaintiffs injuries;
2. whether the trial court erred when it failed to assess a greater percentage of comparative fault on the plaintiff.

FACTS

On the morning of February 28, 1995, Mrs. Hartford went shopping at the Wal-Mart store in Franklin, Louisiana. It had been raining that morning. When Mrs. Hartford arrived at Wal-Mart, it was drizzling. As she entered the store, she was greeted by a Wal-Mart employee, Terry Eldridge, who offered her a sales circular. Mr. Eldridge was to her right on the opposite side of a rail that separated the entrance from the exit. According to Mrs. Hartford, the circulars were in the basket of a | ^wheelchair shopping cart which was positioned next to the railing. She did not accept the circular and continued into the store.

There were mats on the floor in the vestibule and one in front of the door where Mrs. Hartford entered. She wiped her feet on the mat in the vestibule, and entered the store, crossing the mat in front of the entrance doors. As she stepped off the mat in front of the door, she slipped in a puddle of water. She landed on her right knee, then fell onto the floor. When she stood up, her leg and the back of her shorts were wet with water.

Mr. Eldridge was employed by Wal-Mart as a greeter. On the day of Mrs. Hartford’s accident, he arrived at work at 8:45 a.m. That day he was performing four duties: checking customers’ sales slips as they exited the store, greeting customers as they entered the store, watching for rainwater that accumulated in front of the entrance door, and mopping that area as needed. He was stationed in front of the exit doors where he greeted exiting customers and checked their sales slips. He would also turn toward the entrance and greet customers he happened to see entering the store.

According to Mr. Eldridge, the store was operating under its “rainy day” schedule. Wal-Mart’s procedure requires the placement of extra floor mats and “wet floor” caution signs at the store entrance for rainy days. He testified there were mats in the vestibule of the entrance, a warning cone in the vestibule, and a wet floor caution sign inside the store entrance. There was one mat inside the store entrance which was placed sideways in front of two doors, as opposed to lengthwise in front of one door.

When he arrived for work, Mr. Eldridge noticed the floor in front of the entrance doors “looked a little damp,” so he ordered [1084]*1084a dry mop and mopped the floor. |aHe testified that he checked the floor in' front of the entrance door every chance he got and that he had mopped the floor there three to four minutes before Mrs. Hartford fell. Due to the rail separating the exit from the entrance, he had to exit the store, then re-enter through the entrance to mop the area in front of the entrance doors when needed. Mr. Eldridge did not recall seeing Mrs. Hartford walk into the store and denied offering her a sales circular, claiming he did not hand out circulars that day. He testified that he did not see Mrs. Hartford until he heard her scream; then he saw her on the floor on her hands and knees. At that time, he went to the customer service desk and asked the employee there to call a manager. He denied mopping the floor after Mrs. Hartford fell, testifying that he checked the floor but it was dry. He also denied seeing water on Mrs. Hartford’s leg or shorts.

Lee Carlton, assistant manager of the store, arrived at the scene of the fall after being notified. He did not see water on the floor when he arrived; however, he testified that the greeter should have mopped the floor immediately after the fall. He also testified that he did not see a “wet floor” caution sign or cone in front of the entrance when he arrived on the scene. Mrs. Hartford testified that Mr. Carlton tore a piece of a sales circular in the wheelchair basket and wrote her name on it. He did not recall what he wrote the information he obtained from her on, but testified that circulars were usually available and offered to customers at the end of and beginning of each month. After speaking with Mrs. Hartford, he returned to his office and prepared an accident report. Thereafter, he returned to the entrance and took two photographs of the area where Mrs. Hartford slipped. The photographs taken by Mr. Carlton depict a warning cone in the vestibule, a “wet floor” caution sign to the left of the entrance door used by Mrs. Hartford, and a basket near the “wet floor” 1 ¿caution sign. Mrs. Hartford was not present when Mr. Carlton prepared the accident report or when he took the photographs attached to the report.

The trial court accepted Mrs. Hartford’s testimony over Mr. Eldridge’s, concluding that she slipped “on accumulated water in an area inside of the store near the floor mat, as she testified.”

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A trial court’s findings of fact may not be reversed absent manifest error or unless it is clearly wrong. Stobart v. State of Louisiana, through Dep’t of Transp. and Dev., 617 So.2d 880 (La.1993). Evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed on review. When reviewing the trial court’s findings of fact, the áppellate court must review the entire record to determine whether the trial court’s conclusion was a reasonable one. Id. If the trial court’s findings are “reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse, even if convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.” Id. at 882-83, quoting Housley v. Cerise, 579 So.2d 973 (La.1991).

LAW AND ARGUMENT

La.R.S. 9:2800.6

Under La.R.S. 9:2800.6 B Mrs. Hartford had to prove that Wal-Mart created or had actual or constructive notice of a condition that caused damage to her. Constructive notice is defined by La.R.S. 9:2800.6 C(l):

“Constructive notice” means the claimant has proven that the condition existed for such a period of time that it would have been discovered if the merchant had exercised reasonable care. The presence of an employee in the vicinity in which the condition exists does not, alone, | Rconstitute constructive notice, unless it is shown that the employee knew, or in the exercise of reasonable [1085]*1085care should have known, of the condition.

Constructive notice is defined to include a temporal element, “such a period of time ... [.]” White v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 97-393 (La.9/9/97); 699 So.2d 1081.

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Bluebook (online)
765 So. 2d 1081, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 3459, 2000 WL 675554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartford-v-wal-mart-stores-inc-lactapp-2000.