Three minutes of liquid product on floor was not enough time to establish constructive notice to supermarket to trigger a duty of care.

The plaintiff appealed the dismissal of her premises liability complaint against the defendant. Based on footage from the defendant’s security camera, store patrons were walking through the pharmacy section of the store when a plastic bottle fell to the floor and its cap dislodged. One of the individuals picked up the bottle and placed it back on the shelf. Three minutes later, the plaintiff walked in the pharmacy area and slipped on the shampoo on the floor that had leaked from the bottle. The defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing it did not have actual or constructive notice of the shampoo on the floor. The trial court granted the motion, concluding that three minutes was insufficient to establish constructive notice on the part of the defendant. On appeal, the plaintiff argued this was a triable issue. The Appellate Division rejected the plaintiff’s argument, noting that the plaintiff presented no evidence to indicate that three minutes would have given the defendant a reasonable opportunity to discover and clean up the spill, no matter how diligent the defendant’s employees were. The court further held that the defendant’s lack of a written policy as to cleanups was not evidence of a failure to exercise reasonable care.

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