Case Results

Scalera v. Costco Wholesale Corporation

Case #: 2:21-cv-14425-JKS-LDW

Protected the Defendant (Costco) from an Unsubstantiated Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit

We represented the defendant and were granted summary judgment in connection with an incident wherein the plaintiff claimed that she slipped and fell on strawberries in Costco’s produce cooler.

The plaintiff claimed that she slipped on strawberries that were already crushed, despite admitting that she did not see the strawberries before she fell. A Costco employee conducted an inspection of the produce cooler minutes before the happening of the incident and there were no strawberries on the floor at that time.

The Court found that the mode-of-operation doctrine was not applicable due to the way Costco sells its strawberries, in plastic clamshell snap-shut containers. It was not reasonably foreseeable that strawberries would fall to the floor when offered in that manner.

The Court noted that there was no evidence of prior strawberry spills, showing that the way the strawberries were offered was very effective in reducing spillage. The Court further held that the plaintiff failed to prove actual or constructive notice of the strawberries, as the plaintiff had failed to offer any evidence of how long the strawberries existed on the floor prior to the incident.

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