Schnuphase v. Storehouse Markets

• Decision Date: 11 June 1996
• Docket Number: No. 940606,940606
• Citation: 918 P.2d 476
• Parties: Barbara SCHNUPHASE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STOREHOUSE MARKETS, Defendant and Appellee.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 476

918 P.2d 476

Barbara SCHNUPHASE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STOREHOUSE MARKETS, Defendant and Appellee.

No. 940606.

Supreme Court of Utah.

June 11, 1996.

Dean N. Zabriskie and Thomas L. Low, Provo, for plaintiff.

George T. Naegle, Salt Lake City, for defendant.

DURHAM, Justice:

Plaintiff Barbara Schnuphase brought suit against defendant Storehouse Markets for personal injuries sustained as a result of a slip and fall in the deli section of its Richfield, Utah, store. Schnuphase appeals the trial court's grant of Storehouse Markets' summary judgment motion. We affirm.

On May 29, 1991, Schnuphase entered the deli section of the Storehouse Markets, slipped on a scoop of ice cream that another customer had dropped, and fell. Schnuphase claims that Storehouse Markets was negligent in failing to discover and remove the spilled ice cream and in failing to take adequate precautionary measures to prevent or warn about such hazards. Following discovery, Storehouse Markets moved for summary judgment, arguing that because the ice cream had been on the floor for only two to four minutes, there had not been sufficient time to put Storehouse employees on notice of the hazard. The trial court granted Storehouse Markets' motion for summary judgment on the basis of its finding that Schnuphase failed to state a claim under either theory of liability. Schnuphase now appeals that ruling.

In reviewing the trial court's grant of summary judgment, this court views the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. See FMA Acceptance Co. v. Leatherby Ins. Co., 594 P.2d 1332, 1335 (Utah 1979). Most cases involving claims of negligence are not susceptible to summary disposition; however, where the evidence "is free from doubt so that all reasonable [persons] would come to the same conclusion," summary disposition is appropriate. Anderson v. Toone, 671 P.2d 170, 172 (Utah 1983), rev'd on other grounds, Randle v. Allen, 862 P.2d 1329, 1336 (Utah 1993); accord Preston v. Lamb, 20 Utah 2d 260, 436 P.2d 1021, 1022 (1968). In other words, "bare contentions, unsupported by any specification of facts in support thereof, raise no material questions of fact as will preclude the entry of summary judgment." Massey v. Utah Power & Light, 609 P.2d 937, 938 (Utah 1980).

This court has held that "[t]he owner of a business is not a guarantor that his business invitees will not slip and fall. He is charged with the duty to use reasonable care to maintain the floor of his establishment in a reasonably safe condition for his patrons." Preston, 436 P.2d at 1023; see also Martin v. Safeway Stores Inc., 565 P.2d 1139, 1140 (Utah 1977) ("[P]roperty owners are not insurers of the safety of those who come upon their property, even though they are business invitees."). In outlining a store owner's duty of reasonable care in another slip and fall case, this court in Allen v. Federated Dairy Farms, Inc., 538 P.2d 175 (Utah 1975), identified two classes of negligence cases. In the first class, a store owner must have either actual or constructive knowledge of the hazardous condition:

The first [class] involves some unsafe condition of a temporary nature, such as a slippery substance on the floor and usually where it is not known how it got there. In this class of cases it is quite universally held that fault cannot be imputed to the defendant so that liability results therefrom unless two conditions are met: (A) that he had knowledge of the condition, that is, either actual knowledge, or constructive knowledge because the condition had existed long enough that he should have discovered it; and (B) that after such knowledge, sufficient time elapsed that in the exercise of reasonable care he should have remedied it.

Id. at 176. In the second class, negligence is based on a showing that the store owner created the hazardous condition:

The second class of cases involves some unsafe condition of a permanent nature, such as: in the structure of the building, or of a stairway, etc. or in equipment or machinery, or in the manner of use, which was created or chosen by the defendant (or his agents), or for which he is responsible. In such circumstances, where the defendant either created the condition, or is responsible for it, he is deemed to know of the condition; and no further proof of notice is necessary.

Id.

Under the facts of the instant case, we conclude that the trial court correctly determined that because the evidence showed Storehouse Markets' employees did not know and could not have known of the spill, liability could not be predicated on the first theory of liability. Under this first theory, "[t]he liability of the owner of a store should be established only when the condition complained of has existed for a long enough time that the owner should have known about it and corrected it, or has had actual knowledge of the condition complained of." Martin, 565 P.2d at 1140.

It is undisputed that no Storehouse Markets employee had actual knowledge that the ice cream was on the deli floor. In her affidavit, Ruby Smith, a store employee who worked in the deli on the day of the accident, stated that she was unaware of any substance on the floor that might have caused Schnuphase to slip and fall. Moreover, Ann Gardener, a patron of Storehouse Markets and an eyewitness to the accident, stated in her deposition that the store employee behind the deli counter was busy with customers and did not see the potentially hazardous condition. She further stated that a young boy had dropped one scoop of ice cream on the floor of the deli section and that within two to four minutes Schnuphase slipped on the ice cream and fell, precluding an imputation of knowledge of the condition to Storehouse Markets.

Schnuphase nevertheless contends that a jury could find that defendant should have been more vigilant in finding and removing the spilled ice cream. We disagree. There is no evidence or any basis from which...