Court Opinion

ID: 9735406
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:13:12.549251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:58.034857
License: Public Domain

BERGER, Justice,
dissenting,
with STEELE, Chief Justice, joining.
Negligence claims generally present issues of fact that must be decided by a jury. Moreover, on a motion for summary judgment, the evidence and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. This deferential standard, however, has its limits. “[Njegligence is never presumed from the mere fact that the plaintiff has suffered an injury.”14 Where, as here, Hazel relies on circumstantial evidence, the conclusion that DSI was negligent “must be the only reasonable inference possible from the admitted circumstances. If the proven circumstances are as consistent with the absence of negligence as with the existence of negligence, neither conclusion can be said to have been established and, accordingly, it would follow that a prima facie case of negligence has not been established. ...”15
We agree with the majority that the record creates a triable issue of fact as to the reason for Hazel’s fall. She says there was something slippery on the floor and that her leg felt wet after the fall. Thus, we must assume at this point that there was water on the floor, and that the water caused her to slip. The real issue is whether DSI knew or should have known that this dangerous condition existed. It is at this point in the analysis that the majority impermissibly speculates about possible scenarios that would support Hazel’s claim. First, the majority says that water may have dripped from the pallet of ice cream. Hazel testified that the pallet had frost on it and she slipped a few feet from the pallet. From these two facts, the majority says that water could have dripped from the pallet onto the floor and spread into the aisle where Hazel fell. To reach this conclusion, one would have to assume that enough water dripped down from the pallet to create a pool of water that spread a foot or two into the aisle where Hazel slipped. But the record refutes such an assumption, as all witnesses testified that there was no pool of water. At most, there was a drop of water the size of a quarter. Thus, there is no basis to infer that the water came from the pallets.
Alternatively, the majority suggests that Hazel slipped on water that dripped from the frozen food that Klingensmith was stacking in a freezer cabinet. But it is undisputed that Klingensmith was stacking food 12-15 cabinet doors away from the area where Hazel fell — a point to which Hazel’s travels had yet to take her. Thus, the only way this scenario makes sense is if we assume that: i) Klingensmith walked his cart of frozen food past the spot where Hazel fell; and ii) during the time it took to walk from the freezer room to the point where Hazel fell, the frozen food started to melt and dripped on the floor. A scenario the facts undisputedly do not support. Klingensmith and cart traveled from the stock room directly to stand up freezers, 12-15 feet in the opposite direction of Hazel’s travels. He and his frozen ice cream cargo never crossed her path, nor did he *713pass the pallet or “coffin freezers” located near her fall.
In sum, the evidence only supports a conclusion that Hazel fell on something wet. That wet substance could have come from another customer’s shopping cart, a spilled power drink, condensation from frozen food, or a number of other theoretical possibilities. The source of the water is a matter of pure speculation. Accordingly, the trial court correctly granted summary judgment.

. Wilson v. Derrickson, 175 A.2d at 401.

. Ibid.