Question

Scenario

John’s wife is suffering from a severe cold and can’t stop coughing and sneezing. At 9:00pm, John decided to go to the supermarket and buy some cold medicine for his wife. John arrived at the supermarket and started looking for the aisle with the cold medicine. He was walking down the aisle with the frozen food coolers, looking at the signs, when he suddenly slipped in a pool of muddy water on the floor next to the ice cream freezer. John lay in the water in intense pain from an injury to his knee. Another customer saw the fall and called for help from the store employees. John was transported to the hospital by ambulance with a severe injury to his right knee.

Directions

You are the Store Manager. Review the above scenario and answer the following questions.

1. Which of the facts in the scenario would be important in determining if a legal issue existed?

2. If a legal issue exists, is the issue a civil, criminal, or administrative issue?

3. What actions should the employees have taken after John’s fall?

4. What type of tort is indicated by the scenario?

5. List the elements of the cause of action and apply the facts to each element.

Answer 1

1. The fact that John fell and got hurt in the store premises leads to breach the standard duty of care which the store may have for its customers. There is standard duty of care of the store to ensure the safety of customers . The store management failed to keep a check on the pool of muddy water in the store, which led to the accident. This is however a civil issue and does not have a criminal intent associated with it.

2. The actions which the employees of the store must have taken after John’s fall, are as follows:

· Check on John and get first aid for him

· Call an ambulance and send John to the hospital

· Clear the muddy water pool and keep a slippery ground sign. This will help in avoiding future accidents

· Check on the root cause behind the muddy water pool in the store

· Work on eliminating the root cause so that the safety of customers as well as employees is maintained

3. Clearly a negligence tort is depicted by John’s accidental fall in the store.

The primary elements of a negligence tort are as follows:

· Duty of care: As John was inside the premises of the store, the store had a standard duty of care for him

· Breach: There was a muddy pool of water in the store and no sign was kept to warn the customers passing by. There was clearly a breach in the duty.

· Proximate causation: The muddy water pool must not be there in the store, in the first place. This lead to the proximate causation of the accident

· Harm: John had fallen and hurt his knee.

All elements of negligence tort are present in the given case. The store will have liability for John's injury as per the negligence tort.