Court Opinion

ID: 9627676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:50:15.155023+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:48.588981
License: Public Domain

EDMONDS, J.,
dissenting
In this summary judgment proceeding, the majority holds that there was no genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendant was negligent. In so holding, the majority fails to focus on plaintiffs argument. Plaintiff argues:
“[A] jury could find that defendant should have taken additional measures to ensure that the fruit would not fall on the floor * * *, namely, by wrapping the small fruit in cellophane or other wrapping. * * * The issue is not notice, but the reasonability [sic] of defendant’s conduct in dealing with a known risk.”
Thus, under plaintiffs argument, it is immaterial whether defendant knew or should have known that the berry was on the floor.
In a summary judgment proceeding, a party in the position of plaintiff is entitled to all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the evidence. See Welch v. Bancorp Management Services, 296 Or 208, 218, 675 P2d 172 (1983). Plaintiff offered evidence that defendant was aware of the fact that the produce was displayed in a hazardous manner.
Defendant’s produce manager testified:
“Q. Now, when you sign off on a sheet, this means that you completed the floor sweep, is that right?
“A. Right.
“Q. And is that literal, that is, you take a broom out and sweep the whole floor?
“A. Sweep where I water the wet rack and go around the tables and inspect the tables.
*183“Q. Where is it swept, specifically?
“A. We sweep the water. If there’s any water that comes off the hose, we sweep that first, which is the wet rack, and take the broom, go around the tables and sweep around the tables. Just basically we see with naked eye [sic]. We don’t — there’s nothing there, there’s no sense sweeping.
“Q. So you don’t sweep the whole floor literally? You inspect it and sweep what needs to be swept?
“A. Right.
“Q. And you do that once an hour or so and then — or every 30 minutes?
“A. Oh, actually we do it every half hour or 30 minutes because we do water the wet rack then.
“Q. So you do the same thing both on the hour and on the half hour; is that right?
“A. (witness nods head)
“Q. Is there anything else on the floor like rugs or mats?
“A. Yes.
“Q. Where are they?
“A. They’re located with the — best time of year we have grapes and put those [sic] — if they’re on the table or if they’re on the wet rack, there’s a mat in front of those or two mats if they’re on the table there, you know, completely surrounded.
“Q. For the grapes?
“A. Or anything else which is loose; blueberries, strawberries.
“Q. What’s the reason for that?
“A. Basically because they just come loose and they — you know, customers picks [sic] them up, they could fall off, hit the ground. Safety reasons.”
The majority posits that adopting plaintiffs argument would create a new theory of liability because, under her reasoning, an occupier of business premises is liable if it should have known that a foreign object might have fallen from a display and created a hazard on the floor. I suggest that the majority might not so readily disregard plaintiffs argument if it had not been a berry that fell to the floor and caused the floor to become hazardous. Suppose that it had been a large heavy object that had been improperly secured on a display shelf and had fallen and injured a customer. In both *184that instance and this one, the store has a duty to display its wares in a safe manner. The fact that the berry did not directly injure plaintiff until she stepped on it makes no difference to the analysis. That fact is simply the final link in the chain of causation that is triggered by the manner in which the produce is displayed.
Secondly, the majority misreads the holding of Lee v. Meier & Frank, 166 Or 600, 114 P2d 136 (1941). Lee is distinguishable because, there, the court found that the arrangement of pillows in a display could not, based on the evidence adduced, give rise to an inference of negligence unless the plaintiff additionally proved that the merchant permitted the pillows to remain in passageways after he received timely notice of their presence there, or failed to make visits at reasonable intervals in order to acquaint himself with the condition of the passageways. 166 Or at 610. The decision in Lee is based upon examination of an entire trial record and turns on its own facts. Unlike in Lee, a permissible inference exists in this summary judgment proceeding that the manner of display was hazardous regardless of whether defendant was aware, or should have been aware, that a particular berry was on the floor. Clearly, defendant was aware of the propensity of berries to drop onto the floor and become a hazard. A jury might find that a reasonable person under those circumstances would display or package the berries in a different manner so as to preclude them from falling to the floor. I would hold that, under these circumstances, plaintiff is entitled to have her theory presented to a jury.
Rossman and Newman, JJ., join in this dissenting opinion.