Jeff Raasch (Atlanta, GA) (Premises Liability) obtained Summary Judgment in the case Edward Mitchell v. Hewett Packard, ISS Facility Services, and Cheryl Redmond. This case was filed in the State Court of Fulton Co., GA. The facts show that on July 2, 2014, the plaintiff was working as a night security guard at the Hewlett Packard corporate campus in Alpharetta, GA where ISS Facility Services, Inc. provided maintenance and janitorial services. Defendant Cheryl Redmond was the on-site supervisor for ISS Facility Services at that time. As the plaintiff was doing his rounds to check the security of the building, he shined his flashlight into the kitchen/cafeteria area and noticed water on the floor. He walked around that puddle, and then across an area of dry floor. Suddenly he claims to have encountered another puddle of water but he did not see the second one.
After two back operations the plaintiff claimed $97,817 in medical bills and $28,980 in lost wages for missing 92 weeks of work for total special damages of $125,797. A settlement demand of $550,000 was made prior to the filing of the Motion for Summary Judgment. The Judge agreed with the defendants’ arguments that the plaintiff was on notice that there could be more water on the floor ahead of him in the dark room and, because he was working as a security guard, whose job was to discover and report situations such as this to ISS Facility Services’ 24-hour maintenance line, he should have had a heightened duty to watch where he was walking. There was no appeal by the plaintiff.