AUSTIN - The Texas Supreme Court on Friday reinstated a take-nothing judgment in a slip and fall lawsuit against Albertsons (Randall’s).
The suit was brought by Maryam Mohammadi, who claims to have slipped and fell after Randalls allegedly failed to properly warn of a puddle that formed next to a shopping cart after an employee put leaking items in the cart.
According to the high court’s opinion, at trial the jury declined to find Randalls liable under a constructive-knowledge standard of premises liability, which asked whether it reasonably should have known of the danger. Based on that answer, the charge instructed the jury not to answer a question about Randalls’ liability under an actual-knowledge standard.
The judgment was reversed on appeal, as justices held that the jury should have been permitted to consider liability under the actual-knowledge standard even after finding no liability under the constructive-knowledge standard, the opinion states.
On appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, justices found that they need not decide whether the charge incorrectly instructed the jury not to consider liability under an actual-knowledge theory.
“Any such error would have been harmless because there is no evidence Randalls had actual knowledge of the wet floor,” the opinion states. “Since there is no evidence of actual knowledge of the danger, no reasonable jury could have answered the actual-knowledge question in Mohammadi’s favor, even if we assume the court of appeals was correct that the question should have been asked. The error identified by the court of appeals was therefore harmless...
“The judgment of the court of appeals is reversed, and the judgment of the district court is reinstated.”
Supreme Court case No. 23-0041