The Plaintiff sought personal injury damages arising from a slip fall against Defendant, Broward College, when Plaintiff slipped and fell on an unidentified liquid in an elevator on the Defendant’s property.
The Defendant moved for and was granted summary judgment by the trial court. In affirming, the 4th DCA noted that the Plaintiff was “…unable to identify the liquid in the elevator, determine how long it had been there, or establish if anyone…had actual or constructive notice of its presence.”
The Court also noted that while the lack of inspection may warrant an inference that a dangerous condition existed in some situations, unconverted evidence demonstrated that an inspection of the elevator had taken place 50 minutes prior to the event coupled with no report of rain at Defendant’s property. In the absence of any other particularized threat or active or regular negligence on the part of Defendant, the Court found that this particular time period of inspection relative to this Defendant “did not warrant an inference of negligence” to Defendant whose property was described as a large. The Court noted it was reasonable to allow greater intervals between inspections for this Defendant.