$985KUnmarked wet floor in retail store, hip replacement required

Our client, 67, slipped on a spill in the beverage aisle of a national grocery chain and fractured her left femoral neck. The fracture required a total hip replacement and eight weeks in a rehabilitation facility.

There was no cone, no sign, and no mat. The store’s incident report described the floor as dry.

We demanded the surveillance footage before the thirty-day overwrite cycle ran and obtained fourteen minutes of video covering the aisle.

It showed a customer dropping a bottle, two employees walking past the spill in the following eleven minutes, and one of them stepping around it. That established actual notice. The store’s own sweep log had been signed as completed during the same window, which undermined the report rather than supporting it.

The chain settled for $985K at pre-suit mediation once the footage and the sweep log were placed side by side.

She has recovered well and walks unaided. The settlement covered her surgical and rehabilitation costs, the in-home care she needed for four months, and future revision surgery her surgeon considers likely.