Heath v. ITT HARTFORD INS. CO.

999 So. 2d 166, 2008 WL 5076454
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 3, 2008
Docket43,756-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 999 So. 2d 166 (Heath v. ITT HARTFORD INS. CO.) 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
Heath v. ITT HARTFORD INS. CO., 999 So. 2d 166, 2008 WL 5076454 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

999 So.2d 166 (2008)

Davlyn HEATH and Henry Heath, Sr., Plaintiffs-Appellants
v.
ITT HARTFORD INSURANCE COMPANY, Brookshire Grocery Company, and Mike McCoy, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 43,756-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 3, 2008.

*167 The Downs Law Firm by E. Ross Downs, Jr., Ramsey Lee Ogg, Monroe, for Appellants.

Hudson, Potts & Bernstein by Donald H. Zeigler, III, Gordon L. James, Monroe, for Appellees.

Before BROWN, WILLIAMS, and LOLLEY, JJ.

BROWN, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs, Davlyn and Henry Heath, Sr., have appealed from the trial court's judgment dismissing their claims against defendants, ITT Hartford Insurance Co., Brookshire Grocery Company, and Mike McCoy, for damages arising out of a slip and fall accident at the Bastrop Super 1 Foods Store. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Facts and Procedural Background

On June 12, 2004, while shopping at the Bastrop Super 1 Foods Store, plaintiff, Davlyn Heath, slipped on a banana peel. Mrs. Heath did not fall to the floor, but was able to catch herself by grabbing the buggy she was pushing. According to Mrs. Heath, her leg went under the buggy and her body twisted. Mrs. Heath reported the incident to two store employees who were stocking a display at the end of the aisle. All who observed the banana peel upon which Mrs. Heath slipped described its color as solid yellow. Mrs. Heath sought medical treatment for her injuries and on May 27, 2005, she and her husband, Henry Heath, Sr., filed the instant action against defendants, ITT Hartford Insurance Company (insurer of the Super 1 Foods Store), Brookshire Grocery Company (owner and operator of the Super 1 Foods Store), and Mike McCoy (store manager), seeking damages arising from this incident.

Trial was held on October 11-12, 2007, and March 27, 2008, and judgment in favor of defendants dismissing plaintiffs' claims was rendered and signed on April 8, 2008. Specifically, the trial court found that plaintiffs failed to establish that Super 1 had actual or constructive notice of the banana peel and therefore were unable to establish liability on the part of defendants. Plaintiffs have appealed from this adverse judgment.

Discussion

Louisiana Revised Statute 9:2800.6 provides in pertinent part:

(A) A merchant owes a duty to persons who use his premises to exercise reasonable care to keep his aisles, passageways, and floors in a reasonably safe condition. This duty includes a reasonable effort to keep the premises free of *168 any hazardous conditions which reasonably might give rise to damage.
(B) In a negligence claim brought against a merchant by a person lawfully on the merchant's premises for damages as a result of an injury, death, or loss sustained because of a fall due to a condition existing in or on a merchant's premises, the claimant shall have the burden of proving, in addition to all other elements of his cause of action, all of the following:
(1) The condition presented an unreasonable risk of harm to the claimant and that risk of harm was reasonably foreseeable.
(2) The merchant either created or had actual or constructive notice of the condition which caused the damage, prior to the occurrence.
(3) The merchant failed to exercise reasonable care. In determining reasonable care, the absence of a written or verbal uniform cleanup or safety procedure is insufficient, alone, to prove failure to exercise reasonable care.
(C) Definitions:
(1) "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 of the merchant in the vicinity in which the condition exists does not, alone, constitute constructive notice, unless it is shown that the employee knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, of the condition....

In addition to all of the other elements of their cause of action, plaintiffs have the burden of proving each of the enumerated elements of Section (B) of La. R.S. 9:2800.6. White v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 97-0393 (La.09/09/97), 699 So.2d 1081. As the supreme court in White, supra, observed, though there is some overlapping, the remaining elements to be proved by plaintiffs are duty, breach, cause in fact, risk and harm within the scope of duty, and actual damages. White, 699 So.2d at 1084 (f.n. 3) citing Mathieu v. Imperial Toy Corp., 94-0952 (La.11/30/94), 646 So.2d 318. Failure to prove any of these required elements will prove fatal to plaintiffs' claim. Id.; Oster v. Winn-Dixie Louisiana, Inc., 04-117 (La.App. 5th Cir.08/31/04), 881 So.2d 1257, writ denied, 04-2414 (La.12/17/04), 888 So.2d 867.

It is undisputed that the banana peel in the aisle was a hazardous condition which presented an unreasonable risk of harm to store patrons such as Mrs. Heath, and that the risk of harm, injury caused by slipping on the peel, was reasonably foreseeable. La. R.S. 9:2800.6(B)(1). The pivotal issue in this appeal by plaintiffs is whether the trial court was manifestly erroneous in finding that plaintiffs failed to establish that Super 1 Foods had actual or constructive notice of the condition which caused the damage prior to the occurrence. La. R.S. 9:2800.6(B)(2).

In its oral reasons for judgment, the trial court observed that there was no evidence of actual notice of the hazardous condition presented by the banana peel on the floor. Although plaintiffs have argued that the evidence supports the conclusion that Super 1 had actual notice of the banana peel, the record contains no evidence that store employees had seen or were aware of the banana peel on the floor prior to Mrs. Heath's accident.

In White, 699 So.2d at 1084-85, the Louisiana Supreme Court recognized that the constructive notice requirement found in the merchant liability statute, La. R.S. 9:2800.6, involves a temporal element:

*169 Though there is no bright line time period, a claimant must show that "the condition existed for such a period of time..." Whether the period of time is sufficiently lengthy that a merchant should have discovered the condition is necessarily a fact question; however, there remains the prerequisite showing of some time period. A claimant who simply shows that the condition existed without an additional showing that the condition existed for some time before the fall has not carried the burden of proving constructive notice as mandated by the statute. Though the time period need not be specific in minutes or hours, constructive notice requires that the claimant prove the condition existed for some time period prior to the fall. This is not an impossible burden.

Whether the condition exists for a sufficient length of time for a merchant's discovery is necessarily a fact question. Melton v. Smith, 41,456 (La.App. 2d Cir.09/20/06), 940 So.2d 89. Plaintiffs are not required to prove by eyewitness testimony that the hazardous condition existed for a certain number of minutes prior to the accident. Instead, proof of the statutory temporal element can be by both direct and circumstantial evidence. Id.; Bassett v. Toys "R" Us Delaware, Inc., 36,434 (La.App. 2d Cir.12/30/02), 836 So.2d 465, writ denied, 03-0560 (La.04/25/03), 842 So.2d 408; Davenport v.

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Bluebook (online)
999 So. 2d 166, 2008 WL 5076454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heath-v-itt-hartford-ins-co-lactapp-2008.