PetSmart should sue this person for being an idiot who didn’t look where he was going.
He's barking up the wrong tree
Oh, crap! Not this s**t again!!!
I bet he said “oh! sh!t”!
This HAS to be an April Fools Day joke. Or, maybe our country is just filled with year-round fools.
There is no evidence in this case that [Winn-Dixie] knew of the presence of the [bean] on the floor, nor is there any showing of the length of time it may have been there. It is just as logical to assume that it was placed on the floor an instant before [Parker] struck it as it is to infer that it had been there long enough that [Winn-Dixie] should, in the exercise of reasonable care, have known about it. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. v. Parker 240 Va. 180, 184, 396 S.E.2d 649, 651 (Va.,1990)
Other states differ. If you invite the public in to do business, and your mode of operation (Bring your dog, which may poop on the floor, into our store) which exposes patrons to a risk of harm (Poop on a tile floor is quite slippery and will cause a person to fall), which patrons have a right to presume that the floor is free from dangerous conditions, the establishment is presumed to have notice of any resulting conditions.
Thus - in Va. this patron will have to prove that Petsmart knew of the poop on the floor and had adequate time to clean it up or otherwise protect its patrons.
"True story: I was at Costco one day and all of a sudden, nature called. Yelled is more like it. So I high-tailed into the John and there's some sensitive guy changing his little boy's diaper on one of them baby ironin' boards, and don't you know, I slipped on pee-pee and broke two vertebrae which had to be fused together. I'm in constant pain, but by God I got me a $53,000 settlement."
Wal-Mart is sued, just in federal court alone, on average between two and five times every day somewhere in the US. The vast majority of these lawsuits are slip-and-falls.
However, as a matter of policy, Wal-Mart will contest each and every lawsuit, and refuses to settle. They have discovered that most of these cases are frivolous. Likewise they maintain video surveillance recordings of individuals who intentionally open containers of liquid and spill them on the floor, with the intent of “slipping” on them.
And those individuals who don’t slip “enough”, so stand up so they can “slip” again. And those individuals who bring friends and family members as witnesses, who patiently stand there to watch their performance. etc.
You would think that by now EVERYONE would know not to step in the Oongawa.
Probably a member of congress. They’re good at stepping in sh*t and tracking it everywhere.
He probably doesn't have an income other than government social security and probably gets free taxpayer funded health care, so what could be his personal financial losses? If anyone should sue, it should be the taxpayers, although in that case there would be no net gain since the pet store would have to raise their prices and pay less taxes, offsetting any reimbursement.