Partial Fault in a Premises Liability Case

Answer:

We’re asked often in Wyoming if people, in falling down for instance, have some personal responsibility. The answer to that question is yes, and the law is they have personal responsibility for their own safety to the extent they can. In a grocery store, for instance – and it commonly comes up in grocery stores – people aren’t looking at their feet. They step on something slippery— the proverbial banana peel or the grape are the most common ones in grocery stores. People slip and fall, they’re seriously injured, and then the question comes up, well, shouldn’t they be looking at their feet? Shouldn’t they be watching where they’re walking?

In a grocery store, and in any store premises, our eyes are directed to look up and to look at the produce— to look at the items that are for sale, to have our attention drawn to the items that are for sale. They’re not directed to the floor. We’re not supposed to have to look at the floor. The floor is the responsibility of the grocery store or the owner. Because of that, our eyes are directed away to where the store owner wants us to have our eyes directed so that we buy something; therefore, the responsibility is taken away from us. Even under those circumstances, the defense will of course be, “You should have been looking at your feet.” How many of us look at our feet constantly? That needs to be taken into account.

When grocery stores are designed or when they’re planning produce areas, they have also the responsibility to inspect those premises on a regular basis to make sure there’s nothing on the floor because we know people are not looking at their feet when they’re walking around a grocery store – it doesn’t happen. People that design grocery stores know that and experts that handle human factors in grocery stores know that – that people are not looking at their feet.

You may think it’s your fault, but maybe it isn’t your fault. Maybe there are other factors that played into it that caused the injury. Every case is different. We have to look at the facts of every case and help you with that case based on the facts.