Deanna Tucker & Matthew Londergan Obtain Summary Judgment – 2020

On November 25, 2020, Deanna Tucker and Matthew Londergan obtained summary judgment in the Jefferson Circuit Court on a premises liability claim against their client, a local restaurant. The claim arose after the plaintiff allegedly slipped and fell on a recently mopped floor while exiting the restaurant after picking up a “to-go” order. The plaintiff alleged that the restaurant was negligent in creating an unreasonably dangerous hazard by mopping the floor during business hours and that the restaurant failed to warn its business invitees of the hazardous condition of the floor.

Ms. Tucker and Mr. Londergan prepared and filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, arguing that a restaurant mopping its floors, as required by the Health Department, does not constitute an “unreasonable” risk as long as the mopping is done outside of peak hours, and presented evidence that the restaurant had fully complied with its duty to warn through the use of conspicuously displayed wet floor signs and a brightly colored mop bucket, which itself functioned as a warning. The Jefferson Circuit Court agreed with each of these arguments, holding in entering summary judgment in the restaurant’s favor that its mopping outside of peak hours did not constitute an “unreasonable” risk of harm which it was legally required to eliminate and that the restaurant had appropriately complied with its duty to warn through the use of wet floor signs.