A FLATTENED CARDBOARD BOX ON THE FLOOR WAS NOT ACTIONABLE IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined a flattened cardboard box was not actionable in this slip and fall case;

The plaintiff commenced this action to recover damages for personal injuries after she slipped and fell on a flattened cardboard box that was lying on the floor in an aisle of the defendant’s grocery store. At her deposition, the plaintiff testified that she saw the cardboard box prior to the accident, as well as an employee of the defendant stocking shelves in the aisle close by. The plaintiff testified that, prior to her fall, it was her intention to step onto the cardboard in order to reach a product on a nearby shelf. …

While a possessor of real property has a duty to maintain that property in a reasonably safe condition … , “there is no duty to protect or warn against an open and obvious condition that, as a matter of law, is not inherently dangerous” … .

Here, the defendant established its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law dismissing the complaint by submitting evidence demonstrating that the flattened cardboard box, which was readily observable to the plaintiff prior to her fall, was open and obvious, and not inherently dangerous … . DiScalo v Mannix Family Mkt. @ Forest & Richmond Ave, LLC, 2022 NY Slip Op 03708, Second Dept 6-8-22

Practice Point: A flattened cardboard box on the floor was not actionable in this slip and fall case because it was “open and obvious.”