Summary
In Lynch v. Target Stores, 790 So.2d 1193 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001), this court reversed a summary judgment based on the issue of constructive knowledge.
Summary of this case from Mashni v. LaSalle Partners MgmtOpinion
Case No. 4D01-474
Opinion filed August 1, 2001
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Robert Lance Andrews, Judge; L.T. Case No. 98-019543-CA-CE 09.
Troy J. Iannucci of Latour Associates, P.A., Tarpon Springs, for appellants.
James G. Salerno and Adam G. Rabinowitz of Peterson, Bernard, Vandenberg, Zei, Geisler Martin, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.
In this slip and fall case the court entered summary judgment for the store owner. We reverse.
The summary judgment does not state the basis upon which it was entered but the motion and the briefs on this appeal focus upon evidence as to the length of time the substance had been on the floor prior to plaintiff's slip and fall.
Appellant Freeda Lynch slipped and fell on a creamy substance on the floor of appellee's store. She alleged that such substance constituted a dangerous condition of which the defendant had constructive knowledge. Plaintiff's affidavit stated that for a period of fifteen minutes she and her daughter had been shopping in the cosmetics area, within view of the nearby area where she subsequently fell. During that fifteen minutes no other customers, and no Target employees, entered or exited the area where the fall occurred. The facts, viewed most favorably to the plaintiff, support a reasonable inference that the foreign substance had been on the floor for a minimum of fifteen minutes. Whether that is sufficient time in which appellee should have become aware of this condition is for the trier of fact. See Montgomery v. Fla. Jitney Jungle Stores, Inc., 281 So.2d 302 (Fla. 1973); Little v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 234 So.2d 132 (Fla. 4th DCA 1970).
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
DELL, TAYLOR, JJ., and OWEN, WILLIAM C., JR., Senior Judge, concur.