HM&B Attorneys Secure Final Summary Judgment in Duval County Slip‑and‑Fall Case HM&B attorneys Jennifer Tedesco and Nirka Zapata successfully obtained Final Summary Judgment on behalf of their client in Duval County, Florida, in a premises liability action arising from an alleged slip‑and‑fall incident. The plaintiff claimed she slipped and fell on dirt or sand while walking through the client’s store. However, photographs taken during the client’s post‑incident investigation showed no dirt or sand on the floor in the area where the fall allegedly occurred. While the photographs did depict a clothing tag, a random piece of trash, and a fallen item of clothing elsewhere in the aisle, none of these items were located at the spot of the alleged fall. The plaintiff argued that the presence of this unrelated debris was sufficient to infer that dirt or sand had been present, that the store had constructive notice of the alleged hazardous condition, and that the client failed to reasonably maintain the premises or follow its own cleaning policies and procedures. The Court rejected these arguments, holding that unrelated debris and random clutter in a different portion of the aisle do not establish notice of sand or dirt at the location where the plaintiff claimed to have slipped. The Court further found that the clothing tag and trash could not serve as a “time marker” or proof that the alleged slipping hazard existed for any meaningful period of time, as the plaintiff could not establish: when those items came to be on the floor, whether their presence was temporally related to the alleged sand or dirt, or whether the store knew or should have known of their presence prior to the fall. As a result, the Court entered Final Summary Judgment in favor of HM&B’s client, reaffirming the evidentiary burden plaintiffs must meet to establish constructive notice in Florida premises liability cases.
