Plaintiff in Tennessee Slip and Fall Case Must Identify Object that Caused Fall

A recent Tennessee Court of Appeals decision, Hilda Willis v. McDonalds Restaurants of Tennessee, Inc., No. E2015-00615-COA-R3-CV, 2015 WL 9426271 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015), involved a slip and fall at a McDonald’s in Tennessee and it provided an interesting issue.  In this case the plaintiff was maneuvering around the area where drinks were served at a McDonald’s.  As she left that area she saw a french fry on the bottom corner of the surface next to the service counter.  She stepped over the french fry and claimed that there was a sharp object that she felt through her shoe.  She believes this is what caused her to fall.  When she fell she dropped her drinks therefore there was ice everywhere.  Because of this, there was no ability to actually identify the piece of ice or other object that allegedly caused her to fall. 

The Plaintiff’s cause of action was dismissed on a motion for summary judgment at the trial court level.  On appeal, the plaintiff argued that this granting of summary judgment was improper because there were multiple dangerous conditions in the area including a slippery floor littered with debris, the French fry, the absence of a mat at the drinks station and slippery tile flooring.  Additionally, plaintiff claims that she slipped on a hard object which may have been ice but could not be positively identified because ice was everywhere after the incident.  The appellate court, found that “the fatal flaw in this action is that plaintiffs cannot identify the hard object that actually caused the fall; therefore they cannot establish that defendant caused the dangerous condition or that defendant had actual or constructive notice that the condition existed long enough to be discovered by proper diligence.” Willis at 4.

The Court went on to note that the defendant may in fact be responsible for numerous dangerous conditions throughout the restaurant.  However, it is the plaintiff’s responsibility in a premises liability case to identify and prove the dangerous condition that actually caused the fall.  In this particular case the plaintiff simply could not identify the actual condition that was responsible and without additional evidence concerning the identity object the appellate court affirmed summary judgment.

This case shows how difficult slip and fall premises liability cases can be in Tennessee.  The plaintiff must affirmatively identify the dangerous condition that caused the fall.  Obviously, this can be done in some circumstances, but in a case like this where there are many possible causes of the fall, the plaintiff’s failure to identify the object is fatal to plaintiff’s case.