Trip and Fall

What is the name of your state?FL
While shopping in a funiture store I entered through a set of double doors where a employee was coming towards me with a dollie of boxes stacked high as him I was walking slowly to make sure sure he saw me he never told me to stop or to watch out. Also there were boxes were stacked to left of me and some furniture was to the right of me. I continued slowly walking down the aslie way there was a pallet jack left in the middle of the walkway I hit my right toe which tripped me knocked me to my knees I sustained severe whiplash, herniated a disc in my neck and tore the cartiledge in my shoulder from the fall. I do not understand when workers are moving such things and are to busy to remove such dangerous objects from the asiles where people work why they did just not shut the doors or close the area to the public. I know that no slip and fall or a trip in fall is an open and shut case any suggestions?

Lynn62 said:

any suggestions?

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Watch where you're walking in the future?

Lynn62 said:

What is the name of your state?FL
While shopping in a funiture store I entered through a set of double doors where a employee was coming towards me with a dollie of boxes stacked high as him I was walking slowly to make sure sure he saw me he never told me to stop or to watch out. Also there were boxes were stacked to left of me and some furniture was to the right of me. I continued slowly walking down the aslie way there was a pallet jack left in the middle of the walkway I hit my right toe which tripped me knocked me to my knees I sustained severe whiplash, herniated a disc in my neck and tore the cartiledge in my shoulder from the fall. I do not understand when workers are moving such things and are to busy to remove such dangerous objects from the asiles where people work why they did just not shut the doors or close the area to the public. I know that no slip and fall or a trip in fall is an open and shut case any suggestions?

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Move out of Florida.... we don't want you here...?

I did not come here to have smart a$$ remarks tossed out at me. I was looking for someone with sane insight .. guess that is to much to ask for.
I was watching where I was walking, there is no reason for a 4 inch high 5 foot long metal object to be left in the middle of a walkway. I was watching a store employee coming directly towards me with an extremly large load of boxes. Neither employee told me stop and go around another way and they did not have the walkway closed off, I did not open the door to walk in the door was open.
I have noticed in other stores if employees are moving heavy objects they close the walkway off to patrons so something like this does not happen. I have had surgery on my shoulder and been in re-hab for over a year for my injuries.

Lynn62 said:

I did not come here to have smart a$$ remarks tossed out at me. I was looking for someone with sane insight .. guess that is to much to ask for.
I was watching where I was walking, there is no reason for a 4 inch high 5 foot long metal object to be left in the middle of a walkway. I was watching a store employee coming directly towards me with an extremly large load of boxes. Neither employee told me stop and go around another way and they did not have the walkway closed off, I did not open the door to walk in the door was open.
I have noticed in other stores if employees are moving heavy objects they close the walkway off to patrons so something like this does not happen. I have had surgery on my shoulder and been in re-hab for over a year for my injuries.

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Rather than endlessly argue with you, do a search for "open and obvious hazards" and then come back and tell us why we're wrong.

Neither employee told me stop and go around another way

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Why do you need someone to tell you for? It sounds like you knew it was a dangerous situation and assumed the risk by continuing to walk down the aisle. The store has a duty of care, but I’m not sure that they breached that duty. What would a reasonable person have done in your situation? I’m guessing, they would have stepped aside and let the worker go by.

Lynn62 said:

I did not come here to have smart a$$ remarks tossed out at me. I was looking for someone with sane insight .. guess that is to much to ask for.

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You don't have to be here to have these remarks made to you...most intelligent people will do it to your face too.

Lynn62 said:

I was watching where I was walking,

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No you were not. If you had, you would not have tripped over something so OBVIOUS as 4 inches high and 5 feet long!

Lynn62 said:

there is no reason for a 4 inch high 5 foot long metal object to be left in the middle of a walkway.

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I agree. There is also no reason for a reasonably astute person to TRIP over that very same object!

Lynn62 said:

I was watching a store employee coming directly towards me with an extremly large load of boxes.

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Apparently, you should have been watching where you were walking...

Lynn62 said:

Neither employee told me stop and go around another way and they did not have the walkway closed off, I did not open the door to walk in the door was open.

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So you not only have to be told to look where you are walking, but you must be told not to go down an aisle with:
1. a 5 FOOT long 4 INCH high piece of metal lying on it.
2. 2 people working.
3. a large load of boxes being moved by those same 2 people.

Lynn62 said:

I have noticed in other stores if employees are moving heavy objects they close the walkway off to patrons so something like this does not happen.

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And that is because there are people in this world, such as yourself, who do not watch where they are walking!

Lynn62 said:

I have had surgery on my shoulder and been in re-hab for over a year for my injuries.

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That sucks.
Watch where you are walking next time....

fell on patio @home

lachelle from carrollton tx , well on july 15th 2005 i slipped and fell on the patio of my own home and i was wondering can i file on my home owners insurance policy , i was hospitalized for 3 day and have suffered a slipped lumbar disk in my lower back near my spin. i really need to know if i can file on farmers. Personal injury . MY HUSBAND HAS BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD ON HIS JOB but the cost of these medical expenses are so high from the hospital stay and treatments we still cant afford this.

Why do you need someone to tell you for? It sounds like you knew it was a dangerous situation and assumed the risk by continuing to walk down the aisle. The store has a duty of care, but I’m not sure that they breached that duty. What would a reasonable person have done in your situation? I’m guessing, they would have stepped aside and let the worker go by.

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I did not continue down the walkway by the time I stepped through the open doorway it was too late I was on the ground my boyfriend was in front of me he turned around to warn me and it was to late, I was right behind him I did not leave the pallet jack in the middle of an entryway which was also a walkway...... no way around it!
It was not like I strolled down a walkway for 30 feet then tripped over something in the middle of a walkway in plain view, there was also carpeting on the floor which was colored grey same color as the plattet jack prongs.
I was watching the worker coming towards me I was walking slowly to make sure he knew I was there. I had no place to go since since I just entered the entryway. Also the worker could not have gone around me I had just entered he was maybe 10 feet away and going to the right not towards me.

This was your original post.

While shopping in a funiture store I entered through a set of double doors where a employee was coming towards me with a dollie of boxes stacked high as him I was walking slowly to make sure sure he saw me he never told me to stop or to watch out.

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by the time I stepped through the open doorway it was too late I was on the ground

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So, were you immediately on the ground after you walked through the door, or were you "walking slowly to make sure he saw" you? Stop changing your story. Were you entering double doors to the warehouse for employees only? Why didn't you just go back out the double doors when you saw all these hazards? You’re trying to make it sound as if you stepped into a war zone past the double doors. A reasonable person would have been able to handle the situation. Are you saying a person of reasonable intelligence couldn’t have avoided this scenario?

So, were you immediately on the ground after you walked through the door, or were you "walking slowly to make sure he saw" you? Stop changing your story. Were you entering double doors to the warehouse for employees only? Why didn't you just go back out the double doors when you saw all these hazards? You’re trying to make it sound as if you stepped into a war zone past the double doors. A reasonable person would have been able to handle the situation. Are you saying a person of reasonable intelligence couldn’t have avoided this scenario?

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I may have taken 4 steps maybe 5 and as I said I had no place to turn ...and no this was a funiture showroom not a wharehouse for employees thats whats so upsetting! This is why I am saying things like this sould be done after hours or shut the doors and block it off to the public.

The law requires everyone to watch where he or she is going and the failure to keep a reasonable lookout may constitute
contributory negligence, barring the claim.
However, where the owner has, through its actions, distracted one from looking,
then the failure to see the hazard may not bar the claim.
This may especially be true in retail sales establishments where goods are attractively displayed for maximum effect.

A jury could also conclude that the average shopper in a retail store might not be familiar with forklifts and therefore not recognize the machine from the back as a forklift, let alone anticipate or expect a pallet to be present at floor level.
From that reasoning and the fact that the hazard was well below eye-level and only four inches high a jury might find that it was not obvious in a store that draws the shopper's gaze up.
Even if the pallet were deemed an obvious hazard Property owners are responsible for injuries that occur as a result of dangerous conditions on their property, which the owner created, knew about, or should have known about.
The hazard may be obvious (such as a wooden pallet in a walkway) or hidden (like a hole under a floor mat).
To win a premises liability claim, an injured victim has to prove either that the defendant created the hazard that led to the accident or that the defendant knew or should have known about the danger and had it removed or repaired.