Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Page 3
Supermarket Owner Not Liable for Death Following Freak Mishap—C.A.
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Court of Appeal held yesterday that a supermarket is not liable for the wrongful death of a woman who fell and sustained injuries in trying to pull a jammed shopping cart loose and died while in the hospital.
Presiding Justice Dennis Perluss of this district’s Div. Seven wrote the not-for-publication opinion in Campos v. Super Center Concepts, B234264.
The decedent, Billie Padilla, died following surgery for a fractured femur. An action was brought against the owners of Superior Super Warehouse in Long Beach and others by Padilla’s husband, Alvino Campos, her adult daughter, and on behalf of two children who were in her care.
Perluss’s opinion affirms the grant of summary judgment by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White in favor of the supermarket.
Perluss wrote:
“In opposition to Superior’s initial showing of an absence of evidence of breach of duty, Campos insisted Padilla’s statement, ‘The baskets were stuck, and I went down,’ was evidence of a dangerous condition on Superior’s premises. However, there is no evidentiary basis for Campos’s claim that two shopping carts stuck together, without more, creates an unreasonable risk of harm or otherwise constitutes a dangerous condition….Moreover, even if we were to consider jammed shopping carts a dangerous condition, Campos presented no evidence Superior was on notice of the condition….To the contrary, Campos himself testified the shopping carts normally were not stuck or jammed together at the market. He presented no evidence indicating how long these two carts had been stuck or suggesting Superior should have been aware of the situation.”
Christian Shin, and Willie Wang of Wang, Shin & Associates represented the plaintiffs and appellants. Raul L. Martinez and Esther P. Holm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith acted for Super Center Concepts, Inc., owner of the supermarket.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company