Lewis v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

546 So. 2d 267, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 1352, 1989 WL 71287
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 28, 1989
Docket88-388
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 546 So. 2d 267 (Lewis 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
Lewis v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 546 So. 2d 267, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 1352, 1989 WL 71287 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

546 So.2d 267 (1989)

Lolita LEWIS, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
WAL-MART STORES, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 88-388.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

June 28, 1989.

*268 Wm. J. Bennett, Marksville, for plaintiff-appellee.

Stafford, Stewart, James D. Kirk, Alexandria, for defendants-appellants.

Before DOMENGEAUX, LABORDE and KING, JJ.

KING, Judge.

This appeal presents for review the issue of the correctness of a jury verdict and the correctness of the judgment rendered by the trial court.

Lolita Lewis (hereinafter plaintiff) filed suit to recover damages for personal injuries against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (hereinafter Wal-Mart) and its manager, David Wilson. The suit alleged that defendants were liable, in solido, in the amount of $352,000.00, together with legal interest and court costs, for acts of negligence which were the legal cause of plaintiff's injuries. On the first day of the trial, plaintiff dismissed her suit against David Wilson with prejudice and proceeded to trial only against Wal-Mart. After trial on the merits the jury rendered a verdict, finding Wal-Mart guilty of fault which was the legal cause of plaintiff's injuries, finding the degree of fault of plaintiff and Wal-Mart to be 5% each, and finding the *269 amount of plaintiff's damages to be $30,000.00. The portion of the jury verdict concerning Wal-Mart's degree of fault was set aside by the court, and Wal-Mart was found to be 95% at fault. The court then rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff and against Wal-Mart for 95% of the $30,000.00 damage award of the jury, making a total damage award to plaintiff in the amount of $28,500.00. A formal written judgment was signed. Plaintiff and Wal-Mart both filed for Judgment Notwithstanding The Verdict or, alternatively, Motions For New Trial or, alternatively, To Amend The Judgment. Both of these motions were heard and the trial court amended its original signed judgment to reflect the dismissal of the defendant, David Wilson, but otherwise denied the relief sought by both motions. Defendant timely filed a suspensive appeal. Plaintiff answered the appeal, contesting the jury finding that she was 5% at fault. We amend and render judgment.

FACTS

On March 27, 1986, plaintiff, a fifty-two year old resident of Brookhaven, Mississippi, was visiting her family in Marksville, Louisiana. She accompanied her sister, Jan Laborde, and her niece and nephews, Wendy Marouf, Joseph Warren, and Jason Warren, on a shopping trip to the Wal-Mart store in Bunkie, Louisiana. Plaintiff testified that the group entered the store through a side entrance in the gardening department. Once inside, the group separated, with Laborde and her two sons walking toward the toy department and plaintiff and Marouf walking toward the health and beauty aids department. Marouf proceeded down an aisle in the health and beauty aid department while plaintiff stopped to look at some Easter cards. Plaintiff estimates that she was in the store for twenty or twenty-five minutes prior to her accident.

Plaintiff claims that when she left the Easter cards display, she went directly to the health and beauty aids department where Marouf was shopping. Marouf was standing in the next aisle from plaintiff, facing the wall, and three other women were talking in the aisle with their backs toward plaintiff. A Milk of Magnesia display stood between the aisle where plaintiff was walking and the aisle where Marouf shopped. Plaintiff turned the corner of the aisle and was approaching her niece when the accident occurred. Plaintiff claims that her right foot slid on "something wet" and left a mark on the floor. Plaintiff was wearing a denim wrap-around skirt and crepe rubber soled shoes. She claimed that she fell on her right side and on her elbow. Plaintiff testified she could not identify the alleged substance upon which she fell, but she identified it as a liquid, saying: "I knew there was something there because it slid too quick."

Marouf testified that when she heard her aunt scream, she turned and actually saw her aunt lose her balance and fall to the floor. She remembered that plaintiff's feet came out in front of her body when she fell, toppling several bottles from the Milk of Magnesia display. Marouf testified that she saw where plaintiff's foot had slid through a wet substance, and she touched the substance with her finger. Marouf stated that the substance was watery and smelled like lemon. Wal-Mart's employee, Judy Ducote, testified that she remembered hearing Marouf remark about something on the floor immediately after the accident. Marouf also testified she saw a scuff mark from plaintiff's shoe on the floor in the exact spot where plaintiff slid in the lemony substance. Warren testified that although he did not witness the accident, he did see the puddle on the floor with the scuff mark through it. He also remembered seeing a large wet spot at the hip of plaintiff's skirt. Jan Laborde testified that when she arrived in the aisle where plaintiff fell, plaintiff was still on the floor and was crying. She also saw the substance on the floor with the scuff mark through it and the spots on plaintiff's skirt. The health and beauty aids department manager, Mrs. Judy Ducote, claimed that plaintiff did not cry. She also related that David Wilson, the manager, picked up a cigarette butt on the floor near plaintiff's head. Mrs. Ducote testified that the floor had been swept with a large dust mop *270 earlier that morning and had been cleaned the night before the accident and that she and Wilson had inspected the aisle shortly before the accident and had found nothing on the floor.

The store manager, David Wilson, also testified that plaintiff did not cry but was stunned and embarrassed. He claimed that he and Mrs. Ducote had just inspected the aisle ten minutes before the accident. He corroborated that he found a cigarette butt on the floor, but could not remember where it was in relation to plaintiff. On the accident report, Wilson made no mention of plaintiff's eyewitness, Wendy Marouf, nor did he accurately depict the condition of the aisle. He wrote that the aisle where the accident occurred was clean and dry. Wilson also ordered that the laxative display plaintiff had knocked over be cleaned before any accident scene photographs were taken.

Ducote, Wilson, and 33 other employees of Wal-Mart all testified about the defendant's daily cleaning procedures included periodic inspections, five or six safety sweeps, and zone defense, where employees clean their departments upon arrival, before lunch, and at closing. They testified that if a spill occurred, a stockman was called to clean the floor and an employee was required to stand by the area until it was clean.

Jan Laborde and her children obtained permission from Wilson to take plaintiff to the hospital. To the date of the trial, plaintiff has incurred $12,425.00 in medical expenses for treatment of her back, neck, and hip pain and may require neck surgery to fuse her vertebrae. The judgment of the trial court awarded her 95% of the total damages of $30,000.00 found by the jury, which was a total award of $28,500.00.

Wal-Mart appeals alleging eight specifications of error which are that:

(1) The jury was manifestly erroneous in finding that there was a foreign substance on the floor of the Wal-Mart store which caused plaintiff to slip and fall and sustain an injury;

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Bluebook (online)
546 So. 2d 267, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 1352, 1989 WL 71287, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-wal-mart-stores-inc-lactapp-1989.