Articles Posted in Slip and Fall

A federal court in Florida has refused to allow a department store to claim surveillance video footage of an individual’s slip and fall while on company property was protected from disclosure by the work product privilege. In Sowell v. Target Corp., a woman was purportedly hurt when she fell inside of a chain department store. Following her injury accident, the woman filed a lawsuit against the business and sought a digital copy of the store’s video footage of the incident as part of a discovery request. According to the retailer, all video footage at the company’s chain of stores is erased in the ordinary course of business after a limited time period. Instead of erasing the video, the store saved a copy of the woman’s fall after she reported it. Because of this, the store alleged that the video was prepared in anticipation of litigation and should not be entered into evidence due to the work product privilege.

Although items prepared for litigation in Florida are normally protected under the work product doctrine, anything created in the ordinary course of business is ordinarily discoverable in a lawsuit. According to the Northern District of Florida, the store’s surveillance videotape was not only responsive to the woman’s discovery request, it was created as a part of the chain’s routine business practice of monitoring employees and customers for theft and other potential issues.

Additionally, the court held that the business failed to demonstrate the video was created for any other reason or offer a valid justification for withholding it. Finally, the Florida federal court stated a delay in producing the video might place the injured woman at a disadvantage if store employees were deposed after reviewing the slip and fall tape. Since the department store’s video evidence of the woman’s injury accident was not privileged and withholding surveillance footage of the incident from her might place the woman at a disadvantage at trial, the Northern District of Florida ordered the business to share the film. Continue Reading ›

In a recent case, a man appealed a grant of summary judgment as to one of the causes of action in his slip and fall case. The case arose at a country club where the man was an invitee. There was a slippery substance on the dance floor and the man slipped on it. The club had allowed patrons to take drinks onto the dance floor.

The man filed suit alleging that the club had created the dangerous condition, or it knew or should have known of the condition because it was there long enough that it should have been discovered. He alleged that he experienced bodily and other injuries as a direct and proximate result of the club’s negligence.

The club answered and later filed for summary judgment. It argued that the plaintiff had to establish the club’s knowledge of the dangerous condition under Florida Statutes (2010) section 768.0755. It also argued that even though constructive knowledge could be established by showing the condition existed for so long the defendant should have known of the condition by exercising ordinary care, the plaintiff offered no evidence about how long the substance had been on the floor. Continue Reading ›