If you slipped on a wet floor at a Costco, Walmart, Target, Ralphs or any other large store in Los Angeles, the claim is against the company that operates the store, and that company already has most of the evidence that will decide your case: the surveillance video, the inspection records, the incident report its manager wrote, and the identity of the employee who was supposed to be walking that aisle. California law does not make a store automatically responsible for every fall. It makes the store responsible when it knew about the hazard, or should have known because it was not inspecting reasonably. The big chains know this rule better than anyone, and their claims departments are built around it. Here is who the defendant is, how the notice rule works, and what has to happen in the first days so the store’s evidence does not quietly disappear.
Who the defendant is
For a fall inside a Costco, the defendant is Costco Wholesale Corporation, which is self-insured and handles injury claims through its own risk management department and outside adjusters. For a Walmart or Sam’s Club, it is Walmart Inc., whose claims are handled by Claims Management, Inc., a Walmart subsidiary. Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and the major grocery chains work the same way: the store is owned or leased by a national company, and the claim goes to a professional claims operation, not to the manager who helped you up.
Two other defendants can exist. If the store rents its space in a shopping center and you fell in a common area, such as the parking lot, a walkway or an entrance the landlord maintains, the property owner is a defendant too. And if the hazard was created by an outside vendor, for example a floor-care contractor who left the entrance wet or a delivery company that leaked product in an aisle, that company can be named. Which parties are responsible depends on the lease and the vendor contracts, which are obtained in the case, not guessed at.
What the store has to have known
California’s rule comes from Civil Code section 1714 and the jury instructions at CACI 1000 and 1003. A store owner must use reasonable care to keep the property safe and to discover unsafe conditions. The owner is liable for a hazard it created, a hazard it actually knew about, or a hazard it should have discovered through reasonable inspection. That last category, called constructive notice, is where most store falls are won or lost.
The California Supreme Court decided the key case against Kmart in 2001, Ortega v. Kmart Corp. The court held that an injured customer does not have to prove exactly how long the spill was on the floor. If the store cannot show when the area was last inspected, a jury may infer that the hazard was there long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it. In practice this means the store’s own inspection records are the center of the case. A store that can produce a sweep log showing the aisle was checked eight minutes before you fell has a defense. A store that cannot produce one, or whose log shows a two-hour gap, does not.
California has rejected the shortcut some states use, where a self-service store is presumed to know about spills because of how it operates. A Court of Appeal said so in a 2003 case against Walmart, Moore v. Wal-Mart Stores. So the question in every case is the same: when was the floor last checked, and was that often enough for that area of the store. The produce section, the entrance on a rainy day, the freezer aisle where condensation drips, and the area near the self-serve drink station all demand more frequent checks than a shelf of folded towels.
What the store already has
Within an hour of your fall, the store typically has: continuous video of the area from several angles, going back far enough to show when the spill happened and every employee who walked past it; an incident report written by the manager on duty, often with a diagram and photographs; the inspection or sweep log for that zone; the schedule showing which employee was assigned to that zone; and, at some chains, a recorded or written statement from you if you gave one.
Every large retailer has a retention schedule. Video that is not flagged is overwritten, at many stores within 30 days and at some within a week. The incident report is kept, but it is written by the store and it is written to protect the store. The single most important step in the first days is a written preservation letter to the company’s legal or risk department demanding that the video for a defined window, say two hours before the fall through one hour after, from every camera covering the aisle, the adjacent aisles and the entrance, be preserved along with the sweep logs, the staffing schedule and the incident file. Once that letter is received, destroying the footage has consequences in court. Before it is received, the footage simply cycles off.
What you should do, and not do
Report the fall before you leave, and make sure a report is actually written. Ask for the manager’s name. Photograph the floor, the liquid, any sign or lack of a sign, the nearest camera, and your shoes. Get the names and phone numbers of anyone who saw you fall or saw the spill before you did; other customers are the witnesses the store cannot control. Go to urgent care or the emergency room the same day, and describe every part of your body that hurts, not just the worst one.
Do not give a recorded statement to the store’s claims administrator. They will call within days, sound helpful, and ask questions designed to produce an admission that you were looking at your phone, hurrying, or wearing the wrong shoes. Comparative fault under California law reduces your recovery by your share of blame, and the recorded statement is where that share gets manufactured. Do not sign a medical authorization; it is used to pull years of unrelated records. And do not accept the gift card, the offer to pay the urgent care bill, or the early settlement that arrives before you know whether your knee needs surgery.
What these cases are worth
A wet-floor fall that produces a sprain and a few weeks of physical therapy is a modest case. A fall that produces a fractured wrist, a torn meniscus, a hip fracture or a herniated disc that needs injections or surgery is not. Our published results include a $250,000 recovery in a premises liability trip-and-fall and a $500,000 recovery in a slip-and-fall case. The value turns on the injury, the medical treatment, and how cleanly the notice question is answered, which is why the evidence steps above matter more than anything else you do.
Deadlines
Two years from the fall under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 for a claim against a private company. If you fell on property owned by a city, a county or a public agency, for example a public parking structure or a sidewalk the city maintains, a government claim must be filed within six months under Government Code section 911.2, and that deadline is strict.
Key points
The defendant is the national company that operates the store, and its claims department, not the manager who helped you.
California requires proof that the store knew or should have known about the hazard. Under Ortega v. Kmart, a store that cannot show when it last inspected the area gives up that argument.
The store has the video, the sweep log and the staffing schedule. Video is overwritten unless a written preservation demand is received quickly.
Report the fall, photograph everything, get witness names, treat the same day, and give no recorded statement.
Two years to file against a private store; six months to file a government claim if the property is public.
Frequently asked questions
There was a yellow caution cone near the spill. Does that end my case? No. A cone is one fact. Whether it was placed before or after you fell, whether it was visible from your approach, and whether a cone was a reasonable response to a hazard that should have been cleaned up are all questions for the case.
The manager said the spill happened “a minute ago.” Should I believe that? Managers often say this, and sometimes it is true. The video decides it. That is why the preservation letter goes out immediately.
I was a Costco member. Does the membership agreement limit my claim? No. The membership agreement does not waive your right to bring an injury claim.
The store offered to pay my medical bills if I sign a release. Should I? Not before you know the full extent of your injury. A release signed in week one for a knee that needs surgery in month three cannot be undone.
Manoukian Law Firm, P.C., Chatsworth, California. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
