On December 13, 2017, in Lago v. Costco, No. 3D16-1899, the Florida Third DCA affirmed a trial court’s summary judgment for the defendant in a premises liability case involving a plaintiff’s slip and fall on an alleged liquid substance on the entranceway floor to the defendant’s store. Section 768.0755, Florida Statutes, provides that if a person slips and falls on a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment, the injured person must prove that the business establishment had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it. Constructive knowledge may be proven by circumstantial evidence that (a) the dangerous condition existed for such a length of time that in the exercise of ordinary care, the business establishment should have known of the condition; or (b) the condition occurred with regularity and was therefore foreseeable. The Florida Third DCA noted that the plaintiff did not see any of the defendant’s employees around the liquid or by the entrance before or when she fell, and she had no idea how long the substance had been there.
