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Barge v. Melvin Carmichael Enters. Inc.

A jury question remained as to whether defendant's inspection procedures at the time in question were reasonable.

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On June 4, 1998, at approximately 11:40 a.m., Betty Rose Barge slipped and fell on some ham salad that had been spilled on the floor of aisle seven of Zach’s Discount Foods1 when a customer apparently dropped a plastic ham salad container in the aisle on the way to the checkout counter; picked up the cracked container, leaving ham salad on the floor; returned the cracked container to the refrigerated foods section, burying it under other containers; picked up an unscathed container of ham salad; and checked out of the grocery store without informing anyone what had happened. Ms. Barge suffered injury from her fall and brought suit against Zach’s. The trial court granted Zach’s motion for summary judgment, finding that Ms. Barge failed to show how long the ham salad had been on the floor. The court determined that a plaintiff must put forth evidence as to how long a foreign substance has been on a defendant’s floor before a defendant has any obligation to come forward with evidence of a reasonable inspection plan. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.

Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.2 A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.3

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