Our client, a 64-year-old international traveler, was using the bathroom near the baggage claim area at a major South Florida international airport when she slipped on a wet floor and fell, shattering her right hip. A cleaning company employee was present in the bathroom at the time with a mop and cleaning cart. The yellow wet floor warning sign was folded up on the cart, unused. The cleaning company had created the hazardous condition and then failed to warn a single traveler about it. Our client underwent intramedullary nailing with permanent metal hardware and spent a week in the hospital. The defense attempted to escape liability on summary judgment. Mausner Group defeated that motion. The case settled for $300,000.
This was a case where the cleaning company created the dangerous condition -- not merely failed to clean up a spill left by someone else. Florida law holds defendants liable when their own agents negligently create a hazardous condition. The wet floor existed because the cleaning employee was mopping. The warning sign existed but was not deployed. The employee was present and aware. There was no notice requirement to satisfy because the defendant's own agent made the floor wet. Mausner Group successfully defeated a summary judgment motion, forcing the carrier to reckon with what a jury would hear.
