Court Opinion

ID: 9676247
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:19:12.433369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:46.331949
License: Public Domain

RICKHOFF, Justice,
concurring.
Generally, concurrence writing is wasted effort. However, this is another case, determined not by the facts, law, or analysis, but by the predisposition of judges.1 The result is a refined tort reform analysis that largely eliminates both the equity power of jury judgments and another cause of action-the slip and fall. If as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Gonzalez, 968 S.W.2d 934, *845938 (Tex.1998), says, Rosa must demonstrate “that it was more likely than not” that discolored macaroni salad or a banana “had been there for a long time” most slip and fall cases will be exceedingly hard to prove. I concur, but I am very uncomfortable with the trend that makes us senior jurors.
I see a distinction between our case and the Supreme Court’s guidance in Gonzalez. In both, the central issue was whether the store had constructive knowledge of the spill and, in each, meager evidence (age of a fallen banana estimated from discoloration/age of fallen macaroni from dirt and cart tire tracks) supported “equally plausible but appropriate inferences.” The distinction is that on the day of the accident here, the Wal-Mart staff acquiesced in letting a baby transverse the store dangling a peeled banana. That is exactly what happened in J.C. Penney Co. v. Chavez, 618 S.W.2d 399 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1981, writ n.r.e.).
In J.C. Penney, store personnel condoned the practice of allowing customers to consume food (a banana) and drinks in the store and were aware this occurred regularly. Id. at 401. The evidence showed it took approximately thirty-six hours for a fresh, unpacked banana to turn a dark color, i.e., from yellow to brown. Several witnesses saw the peel after Chavez fell. It was discolored, “gooey,” and “black with yellow strips.” A witness who was standing in line behind Chavez said the banana peel looked like it was several hours old. Id.
Like our case, the “record showed that the counter at which Chavez fell was built so that it had an indentation under it where a customer could place his feet when standing at the cash register.” Id. Unlike our case, the evidence showed the store sold only fresh bananas, but the court concluded the jury, like ours, could “have reasonably concluded that it was such a fresh banana when it was dropped, and that it turned dark and discolored only after lying on the floor for a long time.” Id. A more exhaustive and eerily identical listing of the facts appears in Justice Bis-sett’s dissent in J.C. Penney.
The inescapable conclusion is that, if you allow children to eat bananas in your store, customers will slip, fall, and injure themselves. Chavez, Gonzalez, and Rosa were all invincibly innocent victims of the store policy. To me, the facts, law, and analysis from 1981 (Chavez) to 1998 (Gonzalez) are the same-only the judges performing the analysis differ. While the holdings of Justice Nye and Chief Justice Hardberger appeal to my sense of fairness, I recognize much has changed since I took the bench, and I must, for now, follow the new. Justice Nye and Chief Justice Hardberger allowed the jury to subjectively determine from the circumstantial evidence that discolored bananas were more likely long on the ground, while the Gonzalez court subjectively finds discoloration inconclusive. Finally, although Chief Justice Hardber-ger believes Lozano affects the analysis in Gonzalez, I find Lozano unhelpful but remain hopeful that the new members of the court will bring us the clear guidance we all seek.
Here, the jury was asked whether “the negligence of any person or entity ... proximately cause[d] the occurrence or injury in question?” The jury was instructed that Wal-Mart was negligent if, among things, it “knew or reasonably should have known of the danger[.]” The jury found Wal-Mart negligent. I would leave it to the jury if I were free to do so.
Chief Justice HARDBERGER joined by Justice LÓPEZ and Justice STONE, dissenting.

. Like Justice Duncan I know we are bound by Gonzalez and Gonzalez controls the result here. I write separately to express my confusion now over the role of jurors and judges.