Craig Walters, a longtime customer of Kroger's, was shopping at their Ridge Road store in Douglasville in May 2008 when he slipped on some crushed fruit that was on the floor. According to the Douglasville Patch, he fell on his back with such force that he injured his spine severely requiring back-fusion surgery and the insertion of rods and screws to help stabilize his spine. Mr. Walters asked Kroger to help him with his medical bills which had run up to almost $135,000 but they said they were not responsible for his accident and would not help him. That was when Mr. Walters turned to a Georgia premises liability attorney for help.
Owners and managers of property, including commercial property, are required by law to maintain their premises in a safe manner. Being a grocery store, managers and store personnel knew or should have known that people drop food items frequently and need to be vigilant about keeping floors clean and free of debris or any item that could potentially cause a slip & fall accident.
During the investigation of Mr. Walter's accident it was discovered that Kroger had a camera in the area of the store where he suffered his spinal injury. But when asked about recovering video footage from the camera Kroger said it did not cover the area where Mr. Walters had slipped. It was later discovered that the camera did cover the area of the accident. Ultimately it came out that Kroger lied about having video of the area and then destroyed any video evidence that might have been on the tape. Video evidence would have been very important in showing, not only that there was a spill of some kind on the floor, but also would have shown how long it was left there without being attended to.
