A jury in Clayton County, Georgia has held that movie theater chain AMC is not liable to a woman, who was injured in a slip and fall accident after she tripped on a wet floor sign at a theater.
The woman, Sue Brown was at the AMC Southlake Theater in 2003. It was Christmas day, and the theater was packed. Just before the end of the movie, a staff member put an A-frame “wet floor” sign to warn about a small spill a few paces outside the theater door. However, by the time Brown reached the spot, the sign had fallen down, and caught as she was in the throngs of people, she wasn’t able to see the sign. Her toe got caught in the handle of the sign, and she fell.
Brown and her husband filed a suit against AMC. Initially, a Clayton Court judge granted a summary judgment for AMC, but a court of appeals reversed that decision. The Supreme Court ruled that slip and fall accident issues, especially those that relate to a retailer’s responsibility to safeguard its premises’ and the responsibility of patrons to look out for their own safety on other’s premises, must be left to juries. The case went to a Clayton County jury, which has now delivered a verdict in favor of AMC.
Lawyers for Sue Brown argued that AMC could have used other alternatives to the “wet floor” sign on which Brown tripped. AMC could have used a rope line barrier or a more stable sign that couldn’t be knocked over. Another important point in the case involved the nature, severity and origin of Brown’s back injuries.
Brown’s lawyers offered what they said, was “very strong evidence” that her back injury was caused by the slip and fall accident, but the jury was not convinced.
The Atlanta slip and fall accident lawyers at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers represent injured victims of slip and fall accidents and other premises liability actions, in the metro Atlanta area and around the state of Georgia.