Grocery Store and Supermarket Negligence

Largely because of the type of products sold, grocery stores and supermarkets can present very dangerous shopping environments for customers. The dangers in grocery and supermarket stores can be a result of employees failing to post “wet floor” signs and failure to timely clean up spills. The following cases are illustrations of personal injury cases premises liability cases have handled against grocery store and supermarkets in Kentucky and Indiana:

1. Betty L., a customer entered a Meijer’s store located in Jeffersonville, Indiana to pick up a few items. On her way out of the store, she slipped and fell in a spill caused by another customer dropping a Jack Daniel’s liquor bottle. As a result of the fall, the school teacher suffered injuries to her neck and shoulders. Approximately three months later, the woman was still experiencing pain and was using a tens unit, undergoing physical therapy and also receiving epidural injections from a pain management doctor.

   Meijer’s, which was self insured, refused to do anything to compensate the woman for either her medical bills, lost wages or pain and suffering prior to a lawsuit being filed in Clark County, Indiana. After a lawsuit was filed, the grocery store defended on the basis that employees had heard the bottle break and were rapidly moving towards the spill with “wet floor” signs, cones and mops. However, none of them got to the spill, or for that matter, observed the customer walking towards the spill, prior to her wiping out and landing flat on her back.

   There was not an offer made in the case until approximately one month before the trial was scheduled to begin in Clark County, Indiana. Ultimately, a Clark County, Indiana jury returned a verdict that was approximately seventeen times the last, best and final offer of settlement made by the supermarket.

2. T. Rosenbarger, a patron in a Kroger grocery store located in Jefferson County, Kentucky was injured while she was shopping when she slipped and fell in water that had pooled next to the frozen seafood freezer. As a result, the customer suffered injuries to her head, neck and back. A lawsuit was filed against Kroger in Louisville, Kentucky, and the case was settled with the insurance company for Kroger several months after the lawsuit was filed.
3. Hope L., a customer was injured in a Save-A-Lot supermarket in Floyd County, Indiana when she slipped and fell on a floor that had recently been mopped. The customer was injured as she was walking down one aisle and the “wet floor” sign was actually placed in the neighboring aisle in a location where she could not see it. As a result of the fall, she suffered a serious fracture to her knee cap which required surgery and subsequent physical therapy. In addition, the patron of the grocery store suffered medical bills and missed work from her employment at Jackson Hewitt as a tax preparer. The case was ultimately settled with the insurance company for the grocery store prior to the lawsuit being filed in New Albany, Indiana.