Court Opinion

ID: 9680901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:40:49.635003+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:31.199673
License: Public Domain

OSBORN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In 1949, Justice Norvell, writing for the San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals in H. E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Johnson, 226 S.W.2d 501 (writ ref’d n. r. e.), said that in order to establish liability against the defendant operator of a store in a slip and fall case that it was necessary to show:
“1. That the defendant put the foreign substance upon the floor, or,
“2. That the defendant knew the foreign substance was on the floor and wil-fully or negligently failed to remove it, or
“3. That the foreign substance had been upon the floor for such a period of time that it would have been discovered and removed by the defendant, had the defendant exercised ordinary care.”
That same or similar language has been used on many occasions to reflect the applicable law in slip and fall cases. See O’Neal v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 328 S.W.2d 793 (Tex.Civ.App.—Beaumont 1959, writ ref’d n. r. e.); Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company v. Giles, 354 S.W.2d 410 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1962, writ ref’d n. r. e.); Hall v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 360 S.W.2d 536 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1962, writ ref’d n. r. e.); Foodway, Inc. v. Lopez, 480 S.W.2d 227 (Tex.Civ.App.—El Paso 1972, no writ); Whitfield v. Furr’s, Inc., 502 S.W.2d 897 (Tex.Civ.App.—El Paso 1973, no writ); M System Food Stores, Inc. v. Davis, 508 S.W.2d 475 (Tex.Civ.App.—El Paso 1974, no writ); Furr’s, Inc. v. Leyva, 553 S.W.2d 202 (Tex.Civ.App.—El Paso 1977, writ ref’d n. r. e.).
*787Without exception, each of those cases require something more than that the store owner should have known that the foreign substance was on the floor. In each and every instance, the Court said that it was necessary that the proof establish with regard to the third proviso that the foreign substance had been upon the floor for such a period of time that it would have been discovered and removed by the defendant in the exercise of ordinary care. In this case, the proof, from the testimony of Mrs. Hernandez, is that after she went to the checkout stand in the store she remembered that she had forgotten to get some cheese, and she went back and picked up the cheese and came back to the checkstand and at that time fell. She said the ice was not on the floor when she first came to the checkstand, but it was there when she returned after picking up the cheese. With regard to the period of time which elapsed while she was getting the cheese, she testified as follows:
“Q. Now, when you went back to the section to get the cheese, that ice wasn’t there?
•“A. No.
“Q. Do you recall how long it took you to go get that cheese?
“A. I don’t believe it even took one minute. Just what it took me to walk over there.
“Q. Just less than a minute then to get over there and back?
“A. Yes. Just a matter of seconds.”
In my opinion, that proof does not establish that the ice was on the floor for such a length of time that the defendant store owner should have known of its presence and removed it, and that its failure to do so was negligence so as to come within Subdivision 9a of Article 1995, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. Ann.