McGauley v. Piggly-Wiggly Southern, Inc., PIGGLY-WIGGLY

Decision Date07 May 1984
Docket NumberNo. 68071,PIGGLY-WIGGLY,68071
Citation319 S.E.2d 15,170 Ga.App. 851
PartiesMcGAULEY v.SOUTHERN, INC.
CourtGeorgia Court of Appeals

C. Stanley Lowery, Martinez, Charles C. Stebbins, III, Roy D. Tritt, Augusta, for appellant.

Gould B. Hagler, Augusta, for appellee.

BIRDSONG, Judge.

Patricia McGauley filed suit against Piggly-Wiggly for damages sustained when she entered the Piggly-Wiggly store on a very rainy day and fell as she attempted to step off a mat inside the door. She contends the mat was soaked through with water and that the store employees failed to change the mat as was their proper and usual procedure in such cases, so that water ran out onto the terrazzo floor, creating a slippery hazard, all of which the appellee knew or should have known. She stated that she herself did not see water on the floor. In her deposition, she testified that she wiped her feet on the mat after she entered the store, and as she "went to step off the rug" onto the floor, and "was walking towards the edge of the rug," she fell. She testified that she thinks she slipped as she put her foot on the terrazzo floor, but is not exactly sure if her foot was on the floor or on the rug when she slipped. Her right knee bore the brunt of the fall, and she suffered damage to it requiring surgery. She was asked whether she could "hear the water squishing out from under the rug," and she replied that she could. She later explained by way of affidavit that this remark was meant to refer to what she learned after she fell and her knee hit the mat. Piggly Wiggly employees presented evidence that they had been mopping all day and had mopped the area a few minutes before McGauley entered the store. The trial court granted summary judgment to Piggly-Wiggly, without explanation, and McGauley appeals. Held:

The appellee Piggly-Wiggly contends summary judgment was proper because the fundamental basis of liability in a slip and fall case, which is the proprietor's superior knowledge of a situation and the corresponding danger to persons coming on the premises (Alterman Foods v. Ligon, 246 Ga. 620, 272 S.E.2d 327), is not present in this case. Piggly Wiggly points to McGauley's testimony that she heard water "squishing out of the rug," as proof of equal knowledge. Piggly-Wiggly especially relates this principle of equal knowledge to cases involving the wet entrances of stores on rainy days which is a situation customarily to be found on such days so that in such a case the...

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9 cases
  • Colbert v. Piggly Wiggly Southern
    • United States
    • Georgia Court of Appeals
    • May 7, 1985
    ...shiny to her, just as it does when waxed. On motion for summary judgment, appellee produced the recent case of McGauley v. Piggly-Wiggly Southern, 170 Ga.App. 851, 319 S.E.2d 15 as being nearly identical and on point, and summary judgment was granted to Piggly Wiggly. Colbert appeals. Held:......
  • Williams v. EMRO Marketing Co., A97A0957
    • United States
    • Georgia Court of Appeals
    • October 29, 1997
    ...Without some proof of what caused his fall, Williams' recovery was precluded. Id. at 625, 272 S.E.2d 327; McGauley v. Piggly-Wiggly Southern, 170 Ga.App. 851, 852, 319 S.E.2d 15 (1984). Williams could not and did not testify that he slipped on ice. In fact, repeatedly during his deposition,......
  • Hall v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.
    • United States
    • Georgia Court of Appeals
    • September 26, 1996
    ...an insurer of his customer's safety which he is not in this state." (Citation and punctuation omitted). McGauley v. Piggly-Wiggly Southern, 170 Ga.App. 851, 852, 319 S.E.2d 15 (1984) (granting summary judgment since the "record is silent as to why or how the appellant slipped, or upon what"......
  • Best v. Dublin Eye Associates, P.C., 76724
    • United States
    • Georgia Court of Appeals
    • September 6, 1988
    ... ... See Prophecy Corp. v. Charles Rossignol, Inc., 256 Ga. 27, 343 S.E.2d 680 (1986). See also Burnette ... 864, 338 S.E.2d 297 (1985), Colbert v. Piggly Wiggly Southern, 175 Ga.App. 44, 332 S.E.2d 304 (1985), and ...         The appellees' reliance on McGauley v. Piggly-Wiggly Southern, 170 Ga.App. 851, ... 319 ... ...
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