Are business owners always responsible when someone slips or trips on a foreign substance in their store or on their property?
Before July 2010, Florida Statute 768.0710 controlled this issue. The statute said business owners must use reasonable care to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. In order to recover for your damages as a result ofinjuries from slipping or tripping on a transitory foreign substance, you had to prove the business acted negligently in failing to exercise reasonable care in the maintenance, inspection, repair, warning or mode of operation. The statute specifically stated that “actual or constructive notice of the transitory foreign object or substance is not a required element of proof to this claim.”
With a push from “big business” and the insurance industry, the Florida Legislature enacted Florida Statute 768.0755, which took effect in July 2010. This statute changed the evidence requirements, as well as the burden of proof requirements for what an injured party needs to show in order to recover for their damages. This new statute requires an injured party to prove actual or constructive knowledge, on behalf of the business, of the dangerous condition. Remember, the old statute did not require this actual or constructive notice in order to maintain a cause of action. This change in the law has made it much easier for businesses to now deny liability when one of their customers is injured on their property. Actual knowledge means just what it says, the business actually knew of the dangerous condition – they either created it or at least saw it. This is much harder to prove. The statute says that constructive knowledge may be proven circumstantially by showing the dangerous condition existed for long enough that with ordinary custodial care, the business should have known about it or could have foreseen the issue if this was the regular condition.
The bottom line is that with this change in the law, businesses will be able escape liability for customers’ injuries.
