Oily Floor Slip and Fall Accident in Fort Lauderdale

*All names have been changed to protect case members’ identities.

Summary of the Slip and Fall Accident in West Palm Beach

The plaintiff, Maria, sued her insurance company in West Palm Beach for a premises liability case. We recovered $350,000 in damages when we successfully tried her case.

Details of the Accident

Maria is a mother and grandmother who realized that her car was making a strange noise. She took it to a local West Palm Beach repair shop, whose employee asked if they could hear the noise firsthand. The employee drove the car around the block, with Maria in the passenger seat. Upon returning, the employee asked Maria to step over to the office computer. When she stepped out of the car, she slipped and fell on an oily, wet floor, knocking the wind out of her. She continued to have trouble breathing, and after several minutes, an ambulance was called.

Damages and Injuries Claimed

Maria suffered the following injuries as a direct result of the accident:

• A tear in the supraspinatus tendon at the articular surface of the left shoulder
• A hernia on the left side at C5-6, deforming the anterior left aspect of the thecal sac (reaching the left C6 root nerve)
• A C5-6 discectomy decompression and fusion
• An oblique tear through the posterior horn of the medial meniscus (left knee)
• A surgical repair of the medial meniscus tear
• Weakness and numbness in the fourth and fifth fingers of her left hand
• Emotional depression

Liabilities

We believed that the defendant was liable, as it should have been the company’s responsibility to clean up moisture and/or oil spills on the floor of their West Palm Beach, FL shop to prevent slips, trips, and falls.

Cohen & Cohen fought for these rights owed to Maria, as well as to other Florida customers in the future:

• To provide warning of an oily floor, which they should have known about, but Maria would not have foreseen.
• To protect Maria from foreseeable risks, including slips, trips, and falls
• To use reasonable care in maintaining their premises
• To warn of dangerous conditions

Liability was clear in this premises liability case because:

• The repair shop employees knew that their customers would be walking on the repair shop’s marble flooring and still failed to clean up an oily, wet spill
• The repair shop’s employees and/or agents should have taken reasonable steps to alert their customers of dangerous conditions by using warning signs, cones, or other appropriate measures