Grocery store negligence claims dismissed.

We obtained dismissal in New York Supreme Court, Westchester County, on behalf of a grocery store in a negligence case. The plaintiff was delivering bakery products to the grocery store when he was struck in the eye with a bottle thrown by an unknown individual. The plaintiff brought suit against the grocery store for negligence. The unknown individual was not employed by the grocery store. Grocery store employees were assisting a mother and child who were being followed by this unknown individual and escorted the individual out of the store. An altercation between the unknown individual and the store employees ensued. During the altercation, the unknown individual threw a bottle toward an store employee, but the bottle ended up hitting the plaintiff’s eye. We filed a motion for summary judgment requesting dismissal of the plaintiff’s complaint. The court granted the motion and determined that the defendant established that it did not anticipate that the unknown individual would throw a bottle towards the plaintiff. The plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact that the defendant had any prior similar incidents occurring at its location. The court also opined that, even if the employee deliberately engaged in the altercation, the bottle being thrown at the plaintiff was a superseding, intervening cause that could not be expected to follow from an altercation.