Nancy Sue Brown's Failure Of Negligence In The Workplace

On December 25, 2003, 63-year-old Nancy Sue Brown was injured exiting a packed Georgia movie theater by tripping over an A-frame caution sign that an employee used after cleaning up a spill that had occurred ten-minutes earlier. The sign Brown tripped over had fallen, possibly by the crowd of people, and was lying flat on the ground. Brown states she was paying attention to the crowd to prevent running into anyone and therefore did not see the sign on the floor. An ambulance escorted Brown to the hospital where she was given prognoses of several broken bones in her foot. Two years later, Brown had back surgery to correct injuries, she believed, she had sustained in the fall. A month after the surgery, in December 2005, Brown claimed suit in
This legal duty of care, means they must do everything reasonably possible to create a safe environment. The duty of care includes using wet floor signs when spills occur. Management's failure to place these A-framed caution signs on wet and slippery places would represent a violation of their duty of care. That violation would be considered negligence. An exception to the duty of care rule, states, to be negligent, employees must have a reasonable amount of time to discover the issue. If they did not have time to see a potential hazard and fix it, the company may not be considered negligent and therefore not be responsible for any injuries. The facts state that the employee cleaned up the spill and placed the sign ten-minutes prior to when the crowds would start coming through that area. The employee did not know the sign had been knocked over by the crowd and therefore the act would not be considered negligent. However, even though the sign originally had a legitimate reason for being there, did the reason still exist when Brown tripped over