On Friday, a federal appeals court said that a woman’s lawsuit should be heard by a jury. The woman was hurt when she slipped on a grape and fell at a West Palm Beach Walmart.
In Vanessa Sutton’s lawsuit about injuries she got in August 2018, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision of a federal district judge to give Walmart summary judgment.
In the 14-page ruling released on Friday, Walmart said that Sutton didn’t show enough proof that Wal-Mart knew about the grape, which is what Florida law requires. But the appeals court didn’t agree and said that the facts should be looked at by a jury.
“Sutton’s testimony was clear that there was a track mark and footprints through the grape,” said the ruling, which was written by Judge Stanley Marcus and signed by Chief Judge William Pryor and Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle.
“This case fits perfectly into the group of Florida cases where a jury has to decide if the substance was on the floor long enough to establish constructive notice.”
Sutton first filed the case in state court, but Walmart asked for it to be moved to federal court.
