HM&B Obtains Final Summary Judgment for a Big Box Retailer

Plaintiff, represented by Morgan & Morgan, tripped and fell on a pallet that was left unattended in the aisle. Mr. Cece claims Walmart failed to maintain the store in a reasonably safe condition and that it failed to warn him of the pallet on which he tripped. The Court agreed that the pallet was not inherently dangerous and even if so, Plaintiff should have seen it had he been using reasonable care. In an attempt to defeat summary judgment, Plaintiff filed policies and procedures from an unrelated case and attempted to persuade the Court that such policies and procedures created a duty upon Wal-Mart. The Court specifically addressed such policies as not being part of the record evidence in this case and, more importantly, that under Florida law, a store’s internal policies and procedures do not establish the standard of care owed to Plaintiff—an internal policy that exceeds the ordinary common-law standard of care cannot be relied upon to establish negligence. The Motion for Final Summary Judgment was argued before Judge Jacobus by Stephanie H. Vo.