Last month, Lucine Hinze filed a lawsuit against a Frisco Jason’s Deli, seeking up to $1 million in compensation for injuries she allegedly suffered there two years ago after slipping and falling on a wet floor near the salad bar. Hinze argues that the deli was negligent because there was no “wet floor” sign in place to warn customers, and apparently there wasn’t.
Why wasn’t there a “wet floor” sign? Because, according to Hinze’s own account, an employee was mopping the floor at the moment. Presumably, when that employee had finished, he would have put up a warning sign, but, at the moment Hinze passed by, he was still mopping.
Imagine a restaurant patron seeing an employee mopping the floor and wondering what he’s doing and not realizing that the floor is getting wet:
“What’s that mop-like thing in your hand, young man?” “A mop, ma’am.”
“What’s that bucket-like thing on the floor?” “A bucket.”
“What are you doing with that mop and bucket?” “Mopping.”
“What’s in the bucket?” “Water. It’s a water bucket.”
“Why do you keep dipping the mop in the bucket?” “To get it wet, so I can mop.”
“Why is the floor wet here?” “Because I’m mopping it.”
That would be one of the least scintillating conversations ever recorded – and completely unnecessary for anyone with properly working eyes and a properly functioning brain.
Let’s recap: Hinze asserts that she got up from her seat to visit the salad bar and on her way there saw an employee with a mop and a bucket of water, dipping the mop into the bucket, thereby getting the mop wet, and then applying the mop to the floor, thereby getting the floor wet, but she insists that there should have been a warning sign in place to alert her to the obvious result of the activity she was witnessing.
Bull hockey! Hinze failed to exercise proper caution when confronted with an obvious hazard. She knew that the floor was all wet, and she knows that her lawsuit is, too.