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Ergas v. The Home Depot Inc.

Plaintiff failed to show that a home improvement store had superior knowledge of a split piece of wood, which broke off and fell on his wrist when he reached into a bin for a piece of base molding.

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John Ergas sued Home Depot after a piece of wood fell on his wrist. The trial court granted Home Depot’s motion for summary judgment and Ergas appeals, claiming that if Home Depot had inspected the bins the night before, it would have discovered the split piece of wood. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. In order to prevail on summary judgment, the moving party must demonstrate that there are no genuine issues of any material fact and that the undisputed facts, viewed in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, support a judgment as a matter of law. Hutchins v. J. H. Harvey Co. , 240 Ga. App. 582, 584 524 SE2d 289 1999. “A defendant may do this by showing the court that the documents, affidavits, depositions and other evidence in the record reveal that there is no evidence sufficient to create a jury issue on at least one essential element of plaintiff’s case.” Emphasis omitted. Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins , 261 Ga. 491 405 SE2d 474 1991.

The facts in this case are from Ergas’s deposition testimony and are undisputed. Ergas stated that he had gone to Home Depot to pick up various supplies and the accident happened as he was reaching for a strip of base molding. One of the pieces of molding broke off and fell on his wrist. Ergas said there was a Georgia-Pacific representative working on the aisle and he thought the piece of wood must have broken when the Georgia-Pacific representative was stacking wood in the bin.

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