Moore v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

• Decision Date: 19 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. F040016.,F040016.
• Citation: Moore v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 111 Cal.App.4th 472, 3 Cal.Rptr.3d 813 (Cal. App. 2003)
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: Juanita MOORE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. WAL-MART STORES, INC., Defendant and Appellant.

3 Cal.Rptr.3d 813

111 Cal.App.4th 472

Juanita MOORE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v.WAL-MART STORES, INC., Defendant and Appellant.

No. F040016.

Court of Appeal, Fifth District.

August 19, 2003.

Rehearing Denied September 5, 2003.

Review Denied November 12, 2003.

Phillips, Spallas & Fotouhi, and Robert K. Phillips, San Francisco, for Defendant and Appellant.

Law Offices of Mark S. Nelson, Mark S. Nelson, Modesto; Law Offices of Tony J. Tanke, Tony J. Tanke, Redwood City;

Ringhoff & Toledo, Stephen J. Ringhoff, Modesto, and Theressa Y. Toledo for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

LEVY, J.

Respondent, Juanita Moore, slipped on a french fry in one of appellantWal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s (Wal-Mart) retail outlets.Moore sustained significant personal injuries for which a jury returned a verdict in her favor.This appeal challenges the judgment on the ground that the jury was incorrectly instructed on liability.

Although established California law imposes liability only if the owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition that precipitated the fall, the trial court omitted this notice requirement from the jury instructions.Rather, the court took the position that, by incorporating a fast food restaurant within the store, Wal-Mart could reasonably anticipate that such a dangerous condition would regularly arise.Consequently, Moore recovered without proving notice.

Several of our sister states have embraced the trial court's viewpoint.Nevertheless, it is not the law in California.Consequently, the judgment will be reversed.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE AND FACTS

Wal-Mart's store in Ceres, California, leases space to a McDonald's franchise.A sign posted by McDonald's asks customers to enjoy their food and drink inside the restaurant.Approximately once an hour Wal-Mart makes a similar request through an announcement over the store's intercom system.Nevertheless, customers regularly consume food and beverages without interference while they browse and shop.When Wal-Mart employees witness such behavior, they do not ask these customers to refrain from eating outside of the designated areas.

The maintenance crew at the Ceres Wal-Mart completes a safety sweep of the entire store every one and one-half hours.Additionally, all employees are trained to regularly check their departments for hazards and to immediately clean up merchandise and other items they see on the floors.

While shopping in the Ceres Wal-Mart one evening, Moore slipped on a french fry in one of the store's main aisles and fell down.The area had been swept between 30 and 45 minutes before the accident occurred.This fall left Moore with a cracked patella and torn cartilage in her knee.

Moore filed a negligence action against Wal-Mart based on premises liability.The jury returned a verdict finding Wal-Mart negligent and awarding Moore $725,000 in damages.

DISCUSSION

Wal-Mart contends the trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury that, before liability can be imposed in a slip-and-fall case, the store owner must have had notice of the dangerous condition in sufficient time to have either remedied that condition or provided protection against it.Instead, the jury was instructed that if a business proprietor knows or should know that accidental, negligent or intentionally harmful acts of third persons are occurring or are likely to occur on the premises, the proprietor has the duty to warn or otherwise protect the visitor against such harm.In other words, as instructed, the jury could have found Wal-Mart liable based on Wal-Mart's practice of permitting third parties to consume food inside the store without Wal-Mart having either actual or constructive knowledge of the particular spill.

The California Supreme Court recently reviewed the law regarding a store owner's liability for injuries to a business invitee caused by a dangerous condition in Ortega v. Kmart Corp.(2001)26 Cal.4th 1200, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.There, the plaintiff was shopping at a Kmart and slipped on a puddle of milk on the floor.However, the plaintiff had no evidence of either the source of this dangerous condition or the length of time it existed before the accident.

The Ortega court first recounted the settled law on establishing liability.Underlying this facet of California law is the principle that a store owner is not an insurer of the safety of its patrons.Nevertheless, the owner does owe the patrons a duty to exercise reasonable care in keeping the premises reasonably safe.(Ortega v. Kmart Corp., supra,26 Cal.4th at p. 1205, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)

A store owner exercises ordinary care by making reasonable inspections of the portions of the premises open to customers.(Ortega v. Kmart Corp., supra,26 Cal.4th at p. 1205, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)The care required is commensurate with the risks involved.(Ibid.)Thus, for example, if the owner operates a self-service grocery store, where customers are invited to inspect, remove, and replace goods on shelves, the exercise of ordinary care may require the owner to take greater precautions and make more frequent inspections than would otherwise be needed.The owner must safeguard against the possibility that such a customer may create a dangerous condition by disarranging or dropping the merchandise.(Ibid.)"`However, the basic principle to be followed in all these situations is that the owner must use the care required of a reasonably prudent [person] acting under the same circumstances.'"(Ibid.)

"Because the owner is not the insurer of the visitor's personal safety [citation], the owner's actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition is a key to establishing its liability."(Ortega v. Kmart Corp., supra,26 Cal.4th at p. 1206, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)In the absence of actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition, the owner is not liable.Moreover, where the plaintiff relies on the failure to correct a dangerous condition to prove the owner's negligence, the plaintiff has the burden of showing that the owner had notice of the defect in sufficient time to correct it.(Ibid.)In contrast, if the burden of proving lack of notice were placed on the owner in a slip-and-fall case, failure to meet the burden would require a finding of liability and effectively render the owner an insurer of the safety of those who enter the premises.(Ibid.)Such a result is contrary to current negligence law.

However, the plaintiff need not show actual knowledge where evidence suggests that the dangerous condition was present for a sufficient period of time to charge the owner with constructive knowledge of its existence.(Ortega v. Kmart Corp., supra,26 Cal.4th at p. 1206, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)Whether this condition has existed long enough for a reasonably prudent person to have discovered it is a question of fact for the jury.(Id. at p. 1207, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)There are no exact time limits.Rather, each accident must be viewed in light of its own unique circumstances.(Ibid.)

Thus, where, as in Ortega, there is no direct evidence of the length of time the dangerous condition existed, the plaintiff can demonstrate the store owner had constructive notice of the dangerous condition by showing that the site had not been inspected within a reasonable period of time.(Ortega v. Kmart Corp., supra,26 Cal.4th at p. 1212, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)In other words, the plaintiff may raise an inference that the condition existed long enough for the owner to have discovered it.(Id. at pp. 1212-1213, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)"It remains a question of fact for the jury whether, under all the circumstances, the defective condition existed long enough so that it would have been discovered and remedied by an owner in the exercise of reasonable care."(Id. at p. 1213, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)Nevertheless, it is still the plaintiff who has the burden of producing evidence and who must prove that the owner had constructive notice of the hazardous condition.(Id. at p. 1212, 114 Cal. Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11.)

Here, after giving general negligence instructions, the trial court instructed the jury with BAJI No. 8.23.That instruction states, in relevant part:

"The proprietor of a business establishment owes a duty of care to customers when they come upon the business premises at the proprietor's express or implied invitation.[¶] ...

This duty of care requires the proprietor to exercise reasonable care to discover whether accidental, negligent or intentionally harmful acts of third persons are occurring or are likely to occur on the business premises.If a proprietor knows, or should know that these types of acts are occurring or are likely to occur, the proprietor has the further duty to either give the customer a warning adequate to enable the visitor to avoid the harm, or otherwise to protect the visitor against the harm.[¶] ...

A failure by the proprietor to perform this duty of care is negligence.

Thus, the jury was not told that liability in this...