The Plaintiff, Tinia Young, claimed that she was in the Publix store in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama when she slipped and fell on a wet and sticky substance on the floor in the Health and Beauty Aisle. She testified that she had just come around the end cap and entered the aisle when she felt the substance under her feet, causing her to first slip, before catching her foot on the ground and falling forward. She claimed that she suffered injury to her right shoulder, right arm, left knee, and left foot as a result of the fall. She was diagnosed with a proximal humerus fracture. After considerable conservative treatment, Young underwent surgery on her right shoulder. Young continued to report pain and problems in her shoulder, arm, and foot in the years that followed. She eventually underwent another surgical procedure on her right shoulder. She claimed medical expenses totaling approximately $140,000.00.

Publix denied that there was a substance of any kind on the floor in the Health and Beauty aisle at the time of Young’s fall. Publix Associates had conducted routine cleaning and inspection of the aisle twice in the 45 minutes before Young’s fall and found the floor to be clean and dry at that time. An inspection performed after Young’s fall also turned up no wet or sticky substance, as Young claimed. Publix moved for summary judgment on the basis that it had neither actual nor constructive notice of any hazardous or defective condition on the floor of the Health and Beauty aisle prior to Young’s fall and that it had not been delinquent in performing its inspection and removing any hazardous or defective condition on the floor of its store. The Plaintiff argued that her observations and testimony had created a genuine issue of material fact that should be decided by a jury, but Judge Kallon disagreed. He granted summary judgment in Publix’s favor and dismissed all claims, with prejudice.