Slip & Fall Injuries at Costco
Who doesn’t love Costco!? We all shop there and reap the many benefits of Costco membership.
But what happens when a customer is injured at Costco in a slip and fall case? The answer may depend on a California Court of Appeal ruling last week in Hassaine v. Club Demonstration Services.
Lilyan Hassaine was shopping at a San Diego Costco in 2018. She was injured when she slipped on a liquid, slippery substance in a Costco aisle. She sued Costco, as well as Club Demonstration Services for her injuries.
Club Demonstration Services, or CDS, is an independent contractor that contracts with Costco to offer food and other product demos. We’ve all seen the food and other samples given out at Costco. CDS is the company that Costco pays to offer these services.
In CDS’s contract with Costco, it agreed to maintain the area of 12 feet around the product demonstration tables. Lilyan Hassaine slipped about 16 feet passed the CDS table. Surveillance footage captured the incident, as well as footage of a CDS and Costco employee walking by the puddle, which the parties agreed was on the floor for roughly 7 minutes.
CDS argued that it was not responsible for the slippery substance on the floor. It pointed to its contract with Costco, which only required it to maintain the 12 feet around the product demonstration table. Based on this contract, the trial court dismissed the case, agreeing that CDS did not owe a duty of reasonable care to Lilyan Hassaine because the incident occurred beyond CDS’s zone of responsibility.
The Court of Appeal reversed. The Court pointed to decades of common law that holds a business owner has a “special relationship” with people who shop on its premises. “By inviting the public to its store, an owner has the duty to exercise ordinary care and prudence to keep the aisles and passageways of the premises in and through which, by their location and arrangement, a customer in making purchases is induced to go, in a reasonably safe condition so as not unnecessarily to expose the customer to danger or accident.” As a general rule, the business invites its customer to all parts of the store where its customers would be expected to go.
The Court concluded that even though CDS had a contract with Costco to maintain 12 feet of the store, the law itself imposes a duty on CDS to shoppers throughout the store—not just shoppers who are within the 12 feet zone CDS agreed to maintain.
Now, whether CDS breached the duty of care is a separate question in this case. Surveillance footage showed at least one CDS employee walk right by the spill and fail to clean it up or warn others about it. Whether this amounted to a breach of the duty of care owed to Ms. Hassaine is a question the jury must answer.
But there is no question that CDS owes a duty of ordinary care to shoppers such as Ms. Hassaine—even when its contract with Costco said otherwise.
The case is important because it confirms that where there is a special relationship between two parties—such as the relationship between a shopper and store owner and vendor— a duty of reasonable care is owed to shoppers everywhere in the store—even when the vendors may have contractually limited their respective responsibilities.
The question of whether a particular vendor may have breached that duty is a question of fact for the jury to answer. But there can be no question that a duty exists.
If you were injured in a slip and fall in Costco or other supermarket or private property, we’d be happy to take a look at the facts of your case.
Safe shopping! And remember, the Rabbi Lawyer is ready to assist, 24/6.
