Colletti v. J.C. Penney Co., Inc

Colletti v. J.C. Penney Co., Inc. (Mar. 3, 1993), Franklin App. No. 92AP-1605, 1993 Ohio App, involved a patron's slip and fall on a floor that had been waxed the day before. Similar to the present case, a J.C. Penney employee had slipped and had almost fallen some time before the plaintiff fell, although the specific time lapse between the two incidents was not specified. Id. at 5. Under these circumstances, the Tenth District Court of Appeals found that: "Ms. Colletti the plaintiff was not injured because she slipped on water or any other 'foreign substance.' She was injured because she slipped on a floor which allegedly had been waxed the day before she fell. Even though the surface was sufficiently slick that a store employee who was considerably younger than Ms. Colletti had slipped and almost fallen on the surface some time before Ms. Colletti fell, the fact that two individuals slipped does not show that J.C. Penney violated its duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe (as opposed to a perfectly safe) condition. " Id. Accordingly, the Tenth District affirmed a summary judgment rendered in favor of J.C. Penney. Id. The Sixth District Court of Appeals reached a similar conclusion where the plaintiff slipped and fell on a restaurant floor that appeared to be highly waxed. In that case, the plaintiff presented affidavits from two friends who were at the restaurant, who said that the floor was not wet, but seemed highly waxed, and that the floor was slippery or very slippery. These friends also indicated that a female employee had said after the incident that the floor was slippery on previous occasions and that the employee had almost fallen there herself.