Court Opinion

ID: 9468931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:27:01.265663+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:07.213842
License: Public Domain

CORNELIA G. KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I am unable to agree with the majority’s interpretation of Tennessee law. The majority opinion ignores plaintiffs’ failure to demonstrate, by either direct or circumstantial evidence, the length of time that the *210rice had been on the floor. In my opinion, that is an essential element of plaintiffs’ case, and without such evidence, plaintiffs are not entitled to recover. Consequently, I must dissent from the Court’s holding.
The duty owed to an invitee, under Tennessee law, is the duty “to exercise ordinary care and diligence to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.” Paradiso v. Kroger Co., 499 S.W.2d 78, 79 (Tenn.App. 1973). The proprietor is not an insurer of the safety of the premises; rather, liability is predicated on the basis of the proprietor’s superior knowledge of a perilous condition.1 Id. Thus, the only basis upon which to premise liability, absent a condition created by the proprietor, is that the proprietor have notice of the condition leading to the injury. Notice may be actual or it may be constructive. There is no claim here that the defendant had actual notice of the rice spillage. Plaintiffs, therefore, had to demonstrate facts sufficiently evincing constructive knowledge by the defendant in order to sustain defendant’s liability.
An essential element to prove constructive notice is proof of the length of time the dangerous substance has remained on the floor. As just recently noted in Jones v. Zayre, Inc., 600 S.W.2d 730, 732 (Tenn.App. 1980), where the court upheld the trial court’s direction of a verdict for the defendant:
If liability is to be predicated on constructive knowledge by the Defendant, the proof must show the dangerous or defective condition existed for such length of time that the Defendant knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known, of its existence. Allison v. Blount National Bank, 54 Tenn.App. 359, 390 S.W.2d 716 (1965). (Emphasis supplied).
Since the plaintiff in Jones could not prove how long a plastic clip had been on the floor before she fell over it, the court upheld the directed verdict. See also Stringer v. Cooper, 486 S.W.2d 751, 757 (Tenn.App.1972), where the court reversed a directed verdict entered for the defendant after plaintiff proved he slipped on an object in an area not open to the general public:
We understand the rule to be that where the plaintiff is an invitee in a retail establishment, in that part open to customers and the public, and the plaintiff slips on some substance on the floor and falls, the plaintiff must show directly or by circumstances how it came to be there, and if the substance was not placed there by the defendant, then plaintiff must show directly or by circumstances how long the substance was on the floor. This is a reasonable rule.... Therefore, the matter of notice of defective condition, ... is an essential element of the plaintiff’s case. (Emphasis supplied).
Proof of the duration of the dangerous condition is, and has always been, part of the plaintiff’s prima facie case in Tennessee. Since Mrs. Gibson failed to produce any evidence from which a trier of fact could determine how long the rice was in the aisle before she tripped on it, she is not entitled to recover damages for negligence.
The reason Tennessee courts require evidence of the length of time the dangerous condition has existed is to forestall jury awards based on mere speculation; a proprietor’s liability is premised on his failure to exercise reasonable care and diligence which, if exercised, would have prevented the injury. Paradiso, supra, at 80; Busier v. Cut Rate Super Market No. 1, 47 Tenn.App. 21, 334 S.W.2d 738 (1960). Thus, in *211Busier, supra, evidence that the defect had existed for four to five minutes before the accident was deemed insufficient to establish constructive notice and to impose liability. And in Gargaro v. Kroger Grocery & Bakery Co., 22 Tenn.App. 70, 118 S.W.2d 561 (1938), evidence that the defect had existed for close to thirty minutes was not considered sufficient evidence to permit the jury to decide the issue of negligence. Certainly, then, the plaintiffs’ evidence in the instant case is insufficient since there was no evidence from which the District Judge could determine whether the rice had been there for seconds, minutes or hours. The District Court should have ruled as a matter of law that defendant’s alleged negligence was not established.
The Court’s reliance on Allison v. Blount National Bank, 54 Tenn.App. 359, 390 S.W.2d 716 (1965), is misplaced. The evidence in that case demonstrated that the bank had constructive notice because water had accumulated in the lobby throughout the morning hours during which it had rained intermittently; the manager testified that he knew it had been raining and that he was aware of the potential danger when water was tracked in. On other occasions when customers tracked in water and it began to accumulate, the bank placed an absorbent mat on the floor. Thus, the jury could have reasonably found that the defendant was put on constructive notice of the potential hazard; a verdict for plaintiff would not have been based on mere speculation. The court only held that it was reasonable for a jury to find “that the water condition did not come about as of the moment of plaintiff’s fall or even minutes before, but had continued throughout the morning — that this was sufficient to charge the defendant with constructive notice of a condition endangering the safety of its customers ____” Id. 390 S.W.2d at 719-20.
If, in our case, plaintiffs had shown that rice spillage was a continuing, recurring problem and that defendant was aware of that fact, it might be possible to find that the defendant was charged with constructive notice of the defect. However, no such evidence was presented.2
Furthermore, liability cannot be predicated solely on the alleged inadequate personnel on duty the day of Mrs. Gibson’s accident. In Gargaro, supra, the Tennessee court specifically held that a defect’s existence for thirty minutes was insufficient for a finding of constructive notice when the defendant’s three employees were indisputably “very busy.” Id. 118 S.W.2d at 565. Thus, the mere fact that the Commissary’s personnel here were extremely busy the day of the accident provides no basis for a finding of liability.
It is true that other factors may enter into the “constructive notice” decision. As noted by the Paradiso court:
One must take into consideration the nature of the business, its size, the number of patrons, the nature of the danger, its *212location along with the foreseeable consequences.
Paradiso, supra, at 79. See also Busier, supra, 334 S.W.2d at 740-41. Yet, plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that any of the aforementioned factors caused defendant to be charged with constructive notice of the spillage of rice. Plaintiffs proved only that Mrs. Gibson slipped on some rice in an aisleway. In my opinion, that is an insufficient predicate for a finding of liability. Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate “material competent evidence from which it can be logically inferred the proprietor, by the exercise of ordinary care, would have or should have discovered the dangerous condition.” Paradiso, supra, at 80. For these reasons, I would hold that the judgment of the District Court should be reversed, and judgment entered for the defendant.

. The majority suggests that Tennessee law requires landlords and owners who deal with the public to respond in cases of injuries to invitees, other than slip and fall cases, almost as if they were insurers. See majority opinion at 209, n.l, citing Parker v. Warren, 503 S.W.2d 938 (Tenn.App. 1973). I do not believe the distinction between Parker and the instant case or other slip and fall cases is based on the nature of the accident. Rather, the distinction is that in cases such as Parker the proprietor of the premises should have known of the hazard since a reasonable inspection would have revealed it. Here, and in many of the slip and fall cases, since we cannot know how long the hazard existed, we cannot find that reasonable inspection would have revealed the hazard. It may have come into existence subsequent to the time the reasonable inspection would have been made.

. The other cases relied upon by the majority, Henson v. F. W. Woolworth’s Co., 537 S.W.2d 923 (Tenn.App. 1975), and De Soto Auto Hotel, Inc. v. McDonough, 219 F.2d 253 (6th Cir. 1955), are similarly inapposite.
In Henson, there was evidence that the bubble solution over which plaintiff fell had been on the floor for a considerable time; adult footprints were found tracked in the solution. Furthermore, there was evidence that defendant’s employees charged with supervising and inspecting the floors had negligently carried out this duty, which negligence was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries. Defendant was put on notice that during Christmastime there was an added necessity to inspect the floors for spillage. As the court noted:
There was proof from which the jury could reasonably find that the bubble solution was spilled on the floor before [the manager and supervisor] walked down the aisle and they negligently failed to see such solution which they could and would have seen had they been attentive.
Id. at 925.
De Soto, as the majority opinion notes, was “not a case of danger resulting from a foreign substance on the floor placed there through the actions of a stranger, the presence of which would not reasonably be anticipated by the owner.” Id. at 255. In the instant case, on the other hand, there is no evidence from which the jury could infer that the rice spillage was created by the actions of defendant’s employees, nor, as in De Soto, could the jury find that the dangerous condition had existed for “possibly an hour.” Id-