Slip and fall injuries are often caused by water, liquids or other objects on the floor or property of a business. Georgia law calls these “foreign substance” or “foreign object” cases, and there are specific laws that govern these sort of cases. Here’s an overview of Georgia law for slip and fall cases involving foreign substances or foreign objects.
What Is A Foreign Substance Or Foreign Object?
A foreign substance or foreign object is essentially anything that doesn’t belong on the floor or the property of a business. Here are examples from Georgia cases:
- water or other liquids in the aisle of a grocery store
- a puddle of gas in the parking lot of a gas station
- Snow or ice in the parking lot or entryway to a pharmacy
- food such as blueberries, strawberries, a broken egg, or yes, even a banana peel on the floor of a grocery store
- An extension cord running across an area where people usually walk
How Do You Prove Responsibility For Your Slip and Fall?
Georgia law requires that you prove two things to hold a business responsible for your slip and fall:
- The business knew or should have known about the object or substance that caused your fall
- You didn’t know about the object or substance that caused your fall despite using ordinary care for your own safety (that’s legalese for “being careful”)
How do you prove the business knew about what caused your fall?
To prove the business knew about the substance or object that caused your fall, you have to show:
- An employee caused the spill or left an object on the floor
- An employee knew about the spill or object and didn’t clean it up
For example, if surveillance video shows that a store employee mopped the floor without putting up a Wet Floor sign or spilled a drink on the floor without cleaning it up, the law says the store has knowledge of the liquid on the floor because its employee is responsible for it. Or if an employee knows about a spill but doesn’t clean it up, the law also says that the store has knowledge of the spill because its employee knew about it but didn’t do anything.
How do you prove the business should have known about what caused your fall?
The law says that a business has “constructive knowledge” of a fall hazard when the business should have known about it. To prove the business should have known about the object or liquid that caused your fall, you have to show one of three things:
- An employee was in the vicinity of the object or liquid and could have seen it and cleaned it up
- The object or liquid was on the floor long enough that employees should have discovered it and cleaned it up
- The business did not have an inspection routine to discover potential slip and fall hazards or had an inspection routine and did not follow it
Georgia courts have ruled that if a fall hazard is present for a short period of time, such as 10 to 20 minutes, the business is usually not responsible for your fall. This makes sense, as businesses can’t inspect their property all the time, and inspecting their property every 20 minutes is a reasonable inspection procedure. Businesses have to have an opportunity to find and clean up spills and fall hazards before they can be held responsible for them.