In July 2013, Diane Brooks thought she was making just a standard trip to her local Boise Walmart to purchase wood chips for her yard. But while shopping, she slipped on a puddle of water, causing her left knee serious injury that resulted in surgery — and now a lawsuit in the Idaho Supreme Court.
In 2011, Walmart signed a contract with Rug Doctor to put their kiosks in stores, with the stipulation that Walmart employees would not run the kiosks in anyway so that they are totally self-serve.
Dianne’s fall occurred near one of these self-serve Rug Doctor kiosks.
Surveillance cameras show that seven minutes before Dianne slipped, a customer lifted the floor cleaner and accidentally spilled water onto the floor.
In November 2014, Dianne Brooks filed a premises liability lawsuit against Walmart, stating that they were negligent in failing to clean up the spill in a reasonable time frame. The lower court dismissed the case against Walmart, but ruled that Rug Doctor should have been more diligent in preventing these types of situations.
Brooks appealed the ruling and has taken it to Idaho’s highest court. Four out of five of the justices ruled that there were enough unanswered questions against Walmart in the case that the lower court must reconsider the case.
“Walmart ignored the fact that carpet cleaning machines aren’t like Redbox DVD kiosks, which can be left alone and ignored,” the panel wrote in its opinion. “These machines can leak or spill, or come back with water still in them.”
Should Walmart have had the foresight to conceive of such a situation happening before signing a contract with the Rug Doctor?
It’s now up to the courts to decide.
For more information on personal injury cases like this one, read our post about recoverable damages.