Slip and fall at Chinese food mart settles for $115,000.00

Author: Attorney Jason Macri

A 59 year-old woman was shopping in a Chinese food mart with her friend, picking out produce for the upcoming Chinese New Year. As she was walking through the produce section, she slipped and fell on a wet floor. Her friend was nearby at the time of the fall and immediately rushed over to help. It was evident at that moment that the women who fell had suffered a painful injury.

Paramedics rushed to the scene and transported the injured woman to a nearby hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured wrist. Evidently, she had extended her arm to break her fall and, in the process, her wrist was broken. The ER doctors stabilized the wrist and a surgery was later performed to secure the fracture.

Our attorneys made a claim against the Chinese food mart alleging that the store either knew, or should’ve known about the dangerous condition of the floor at the time of the incident. Lawyers for the store claimed that the store had no notice of the dangerous condition and even tried to allege that there was no dangerous condition in the store.

During our inspection of the store, we noticed that there appeared to be surveillance cameras which may have captured the incident. Lawyers for the food mart denied that any such footage existed however, during our depositions of the store’s employees, we were able to learn that the store did, in fact, capture the incident on surveillance camera. It appeared that the footage was destroyed within weeks of the incident.

We notified the presiding Circuit Court Judge that we intended on seeking a Jury instruction which would allow us to notify the Jury that the Chinese food mart had destroyed the footage. This would clearly be helpful in showing the Jury that a dangerous condition did, in fact, exist and that the Defendant either knew or should have known about it.

Though the store initially denied any liability whatsoever, they later felt it would be in their best interest to try and achieve a settlement. Our attorneys were able to negotiate a $115,000.00 settlement for our client. With that settlement, we were able to make sure that all of our client’s medical bills were fully paid and she was also compensated for her pain and suffering.