Summary Judgment Obtained on Behalf of Large National Retailer

We secured a summary judgment in a case in which the plaintiff slipped and fell on our client’s premises. An employee had clocked out and was in the process of gathering his personal belongings from the front-end counter when he allegedly created a dangerous condition by dropping his “personal jug” of iced tea on the floor, which the plaintiff slipped on. We argued that the retailer was not vicariously liable for the acts of the employee, who was “off the clock” at the time. The court held that “off duty employment” is a question of law since there was no genuine dispute of material facts as to whether the employee was “acting within the scope of his employment” at the time the alleged dangerous condition was created. A trial was set for April 2024, and the plaintiff’s last demand was $650,000 before summary judgment was granted.