Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Gonzalez
Texas Supreme Court
968 S.W.2d 934 (1998)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
While shopping in a Wal-Mart store with her daughter and two granddaughters, Flora Gonzalez (plaintiff) slipped and fell on some cooked macaroni salad near the cafeteria and sustained injuries to her back, shoulder, and knee. Gonzalez filed suit against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (defendant) seeking damages. At trial, Gonzalez argued that Wal-Mart was negligent in failing to maintain a clean aisle and that the store’s employees should have known that the spilled macaroni salad might cause a shopper to slip and fall. In support of her claim, Gonzalez testified that the macaroni salad appeared to have been significantly contaminated with dirt. Gonzalez’s daughter testified that the macaroni had shopping cart marks and footprints on it and appeared to have been on the floor for a while. No other testimony or evidence was provided to support Gonzalez’s claim. The jury held for Gonzalez and awarded her $100,000 in damages. Wal-Mart appealed. The court of appeals affirmed the judgment, but reduced Gonzalez’s damages to $96,700. The Supreme Court of Texas granted certiorari to review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Gonzalez, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
