Furr's Supermarkets, Inc. v. Arellano

Decision Date28 March 1973
Docket NumberNo. 6298,6298
Citation492 S.W.2d 727
PartiesFURR'S SUPERMARKETS, INC., Appellant, v. Alexandria ARELLANO, Appellee.
CourtTexas Court of Appeals

Grambling, Mounce, Deffebach, Sims, Hardie & Galatzan, Malcolm Harris, El Paso, for appellant.

Gerald R. Shifrin, El Paso, for appellee.

OPINION

RAMSEY, Chief Justice.

This is a slip and fall case. Alexandria Arellano, Plaintiff-Appellee, brought suit to recover for personal injuries against Furr's Supermarkets, Inc., Defendant-Appellant. A jury verdict awarded Plaintiff $14,012.50. The judgment is reversed and rendered.

The Defendant presents four points of error. These are based on 'no evidence' or 'insufficient evidence' to sustain a judgment based on any negligent act on the part of the Defendant in its failure to discover and remove the foreign substance from the floor.

The facts reveal that Mrs. Arellano and her daughter were shopping in Defendant's store. The daughter had a shopping list and a cart. The Plaintiff went to get a can of wax, and after getting it slipped and fell on a macaroni pastry product called Alphabets. The Alphabets are described as hard small objects of a beige color and similar in color to the tile floor in the supermarket. The product was packaged in a plastic type bag. The empty or partially emptied bag was found in the shelf behind the stock, which indicated that someone has spilled the Alphabets and had replaced the broken plastic bag on the shelf. The fact of Plaintiff's fall and her resulting injury, pain and suffering are uncontradicted.

In reviewing 'no evidence' and 'insufficient evidence' points of error, this Court must be guided by the standards set forth in Garza v. Alviar, 395 S.W.2d 821 (Tex.Sup.1965). The parties, by their briefs, pinpoint the disputed issue to the one proposition being, whether or not the foreign substance had been on the floor for such a period of time, that in the exercise of ordinary care, the Defendant should have discovered and removed it.

The evidence contained in the record regarding the length of time the Alphabets were on the floor consisted of the showing that the floor had been mopped some forty-five minutes to an hour and a half prior to the Plaintiff's fall. The testimony showed that the Alphabets were soiled, scattered and appeared as though other persons had passed through the area and had been run over presumably by another cart or carts. The acting manager testified that he was performing the duties of the manager rather than being out on the floor in the store. No one knew, until Plaintiff's fall, that the Alphabets were on the floor. No one knew who caused them to be there nor how long they had...

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12 cases
  • Wal-Mart Stores v. Reece
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • October 18, 2000
    ...S.W.2d 162, 165-66 (Tex. App.--Texarkana 1998, no pet.); Robledo, 597 S.W.2d at 560-61; Furr's Supermarkets, Inc. v. Arellano, 492 S.W.2d 727, 728 (Tex. Civ. App.--El Paso 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Wal-Mart relies on these authorities because the record this case contains no evidence of the......
  • Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Gonzalez
    • United States
    • Texas Supreme Court
    • May 8, 1998
    ...on the floor and was quickly contaminated by customers and carts traversing the aisle. In Furr's Supermarkets, Inc. v. Arellano, 492 S.W.2d 727 (Tex.Civ.App.--El Paso 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.), another spilled-macaroni case, the court held that testimony that the dried macaroni noodles that ......
  • Kofahl v. Randall's Food & Drugs, Inc., 10-02-00053-CV.
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • October 27, 2004
    ...v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 504 S.W.2d 514 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Furr's Supermarkets, Inc. v. Arellano, 492 S.W.2d 727 (Tex.Civ.App.-El Paso 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Unlike the Kofahls, the plaintiffs in most of the cases cited by Randall's presented evidence of a liq......
  • Furr's Super Market v. Garrett
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • April 1, 1981
    ...that same rule. Foodway, Inc. v. Lopez, 480 S.W.2d 227 (Tex.Civ.App. El Paso 1972, no writ); Furr's Supermarkets, Inc. v. Arellano, 492 S.W.2d 727 (Tex.Civ.App. El Paso 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Whitfield v. Furr's, Inc., 502 S.W.2d 897 (Tex.Civ.App. El Paso 1973, no writ); Furr's, Inc. v. ......
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