Polanco v. 756 Jomo Food Corp.

Summary

The Appellate Division, First Department, reversed an order granting summary judgment to a supermarket in a slip-and-fall case involving grapes on the produce-aisle floor. The court held that the defendant failed to establish, as a matter of law, that it lacked constructive notice because it did not provide sufficient evidence that its cleaning and inspection routine was followed on the day of the accident.

Holdings

1. Defendant failed to establish entitlement to summary judgment because it did not submit sufficient evidence, as a matter of law, that it lacked constructive notice of the dangerous condition.
2. General testimony that an employee was assigned to inspect and clean the produce aisle, that a manager walked the aisles, and that verbal protocols were based on common sense was insufficient to shift the burden to plaintiff.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendant established as a matter of law that it lacked constructive notice of the grapes on the supermarket floor.
2. Whether defendant's generalized testimony about routine produce-aisle inspections and verbal cleaning protocols was sufficient to shift the summary-judgment burden to plaintiff.

Disposition

reversed