Summary judgment for grocery retailer in slip and fall case.

The plaintiff claimed to have fallen while browsing in the store’s deli area, due to a clear liquid substance presumed to be water, but she did not see any substance before or after the fall. Instead, she saw a “shiny” spot on the rubber edge of a mat surrounding the salad bar and concluded that it was wet. Despite falling forward onto the tile floor, she neither felt nor saw any liquid on the ground but believed her pants may have been wet. Plaintiff’s counsel deposed all of the employees on duty on the date of the incident, all of whom confirmed that they were unaware of the incident, were unaware of a spill in the deli area on the date of the incident, and that there was no history of spills or incidents in the same area of the store where the fall allegedly occurred. In granting final summary judgment, the court agreed with Amanda’s argument that our client had no actual notice of a spill or substance and that the plaintiff was unable to circumstantially prove constructive notice, as she was unable to prove that a spill was present for such a length of time that our client should have known about it, or that the condition occurred with such frequency that it should have been foreseeable.