Sticky floor or sticky fingers?
Would you be shocked if you went inside a movie theater and saw a movie playing?
How about if you saw someone in a booth at the front of the building selling tickets? A concession stand inside with teenagers in silly outfits vending popcorn, candy, and carbonated beverages? A dimly lit or darkened room down the hall with a large screen in front of rows of cushioned seats? Would any of those things surprise you?
No, of course not. Why? Because those are things you expect to see at movie theaters.
You also expect it to be harder to find your seat if you arrive late and the movie has already started and the lights are turned down.
Another thing you’d look out for is a floor made slippery by previous patrons who've knocked over drinks in the dark and spilled some buttered popcorn.
Slippery floors are a natural hazard of movie theaters. Anyone who claims to be shocked when encountering such conditions has never been to a movie.
Then there is Paul Salazar Jr.?
Salazar claims he injured himself when he slipped and fell on butter at the Cinemark Hollywood Movies 20 in Pasadena last April. He's suing the theater owners for more than $200,000 in Harris County District Court.
So many obvious questions arise.
Has Salazar never experienced the sticky and slippery floors characteristic of movie theaters? Did he slip on butter? Can he prove that it was not already on his shoe and that he hadn't tracked it in from elsewhere. Was Salazar in full possession of his wits and faculties at the time of the alleged accident?
Could he possibly be the same Paul Salazar who was arrested by Pasadena police on a Sunday afternoon five months later for public intoxication? Intoxicated people have been known to slip and fall in dark places, even in well-lighted ones.
The trial court will shed some light on these unanswered questions.