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In 2021, a legal case was heard after a woman slipped and fell in a large grocery/department store in Miami in 2019. She did not see the water near the freezer section of the store prior to slipping, and there was no warning sign of the hazard. The material facts were uncontested. The defendant argued that it was entitled to a “summary judgment” because there was no evidence that it had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition that resulted in the woman’s fall.

What is a Summary Judgment?

According to the Florida Bar, effective May 1, 2021, pursuant to In re Amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.510, 309 So. 3d 192 (Fla. 2020), Florida became the 39th state to adopt the federal summary judgment standard articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (1986); and Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574 (1986) (the Celotex trilogy).

Florida’s Rules of Civil Procedure (Rule 1.510) say a motion for summary judgment is filed pretrial by any party who believes there are no disputes in the material facts and that the judgment must be entered in that party’s favor, or on a particular issue, as a matter of law. In other words, the defendant believes that the evidence revealed during discovery proves not to be relevant; therefore, there is no need for a trial and that the plaintiff’s lawsuit should be dismissed in its entirety.

Plaintiff’s Burden of Proof

The following are some of the things a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney needs to prove:

• The defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff.
• The person responsible for the injury was an agent or employee of the defendant.
• The defendant knew or should have known, about the hazardous situation that caused the injury.
• The defendant’s employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment or acting in the company’s business interests at the time of the accident.
• The very nature of the accident implied negligence.
• The defendant did not act with reasonable care under the circumstances.
• The injury was reasonably foreseeable by the defendant and unavoidable.
• The defendant was negligent.
• There were no intervening events sufficient to supersede the defendant’s negligence.

“Slip-and-fall accidents can occur on private property, public property, and/or public businesses. They can occur due to crumbled concrete, holes in the pavement, parking bumpers, inadequate lighting, tripping hazards in walkways, and any other dangerous or defective conditions that may exist. Our Fort Myers slip-and-fall legal team has years of experience in assisting victims of slip-and-fall accidents. Here are just a few of our case results:

• A settlement for an elderly fall accident victim who received a head injury when she fell because of a defective staircase in Sarasota.
• A settlement for a woman who broke her arm when she fell due to a floor defect at a restaurant in Sarasota.
• A settlement for a trip-and-fall accident victim who fractured her right shoulder when she fell because a fuel measuring stick was carelessly laid across a sidewalk in Sarasota.

We represent people involved in numerous types of personal injury and wrongful death accidents throughout the state of Florida. All of our clients have unique personal injury cases. Our firm provides personal contact and communication along with aggressive representation,” said Fort Myers Slip-and-Fall Lawyer Randall Spivey of Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A.

Should you or a loved one be injured in an accident please contact Attorney Randall Spivey at 239.337.7483 or toll-free at 1.888.477.4839 or contact us online at SpiveyLaw.