When Can a Florida Business Be Liable for a Slip and Fall?

By Steven Gendreau, Esq.

As season approaches in Florida, restaurants, retailers, grocery stores, hotels and other businesses will once again welcome a significant increase in customers and visitors. Heavier foot traffic can also increase the likelihood of accidents. A customer slips on water tracked into a store during an afternoon rainstorm, a restaurant patron encounters a spill during a busy dinner service, or a shopper falls on liquid in a crowded grocery aisle. When a slip and fall occurs, a business may immediately wonder whether it could be held responsible.

Under Florida law, however, an injury on business property does not automatically mean the business was negligent. When a person slips and falls on a transitory foreign substance, one of the central questions is what the business knew or reasonably should have known about the condition before the accident occurred.

What Does Florida Law Require in a Slip-and-Fall Claim?

Florida Statute § 768.0755 addresses premises liability claims involving a person who slips and falls on a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment. Under the statute, the injured person must prove that the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it.

Actual knowledge may exist when the business or its employees were aware of the condition before the accident. Constructive knowledge is different. It may be established through circumstantial evidence showing either that:

• the dangerous condition existed long enough that the business should have known about it through the exercise of ordinary care; or
• the condition occurred with such regularity that it was foreseeable.

These distinctions can become critical when evaluating a premises liability claim.

How Long Was the Condition There?

Consider a hypothetical example.

A customer enters a Florida grocery store on a busy Saturday afternoon and slips on clear liquid in an aisle. No employee reports seeing the liquid before the accident, and no one knows exactly when it appeared.

If surveillance video shows another customer spilling a drink only moments before the fall, that evidence could be significant when determining whether the store had a reasonable opportunity to discover and address the condition.

The analysis could be different if evidence indicates the liquid had been present for a substantial period, employees had repeatedly passed through the area, or the condition showed signs suggesting it had existed for some time.

This is why seemingly small details can become important in a slip-and-fall case.

What If the Problem Happens Regularly?

Constructive knowledge can also involve recurring conditions.

Suppose a restaurant has an area near a beverage station where customers frequently spill drinks. Employees have cleaned spills from the same area repeatedly, but no procedures are in place to inspect the floor during busy periods.

If another spill results in a fall, the history of similar conditions may become relevant to whether the dangerous condition occurred with sufficient regularity to be foreseeable. The circumstances of each incident matter.

Why Inspection Procedures Matter

Businesses can reduce risk by having reasonable procedures for identifying and responding to hazards. Depending on the type of business, those procedures may include periodic inspections, employee training, prompt cleanup practices and documentation when a dangerous condition is discovered.

Documentation can also become important after a claim is made. Inspection records, cleaning logs, photographs, surveillance footage and witness information may help establish what occurred before and after an accident.

A policy sitting in a manual, however, has limited value if employees do not understand or follow it. Businesses should periodically review their procedures and determine whether they reflect what actually happens at the property.

What Should a Business Do After a Slip and Fall?

When an accident occurs, employees should follow established incident-response procedures. The immediate priorities may include assisting the injured person and addressing any continuing hazard. Businesses should also consider documenting the scene, taking photographs, identifying witnesses, preparing an incident report and preserving potentially relevant evidence.

Surveillance footage deserves particular attention. Many systems automatically overwrite recordings after a set period. Once litigation is reasonably anticipated, businesses should consult with counsel regarding their preservation obligations and take appropriate steps to preserve potentially relevant evidence.

Employees should document facts rather than speculate about why the accident occurred or who was responsible.

A Slip and Fall Does Not Automatically Mean Liability

Premises liability claims are highly dependent on their facts. For Florida businesses, one of the most important issues in a transitory-substance case is often whether the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition before the accident and had an opportunity to address it.

Businesses that maintain reasonable inspection procedures, train employees and preserve evidence when an incident occurs are generally in a better position to evaluate and respond to a claim.

If your business is facing a premises liability claim or would like to review its incident-response procedures, Henderson Franklin’s Tort & Insurance Litigation Department can assist with evaluating risk and developing an appropriate response. I may be reached at steven.gendreau@henlaw.com.