Premises Liability: Customer v. Grocery Chain Store

Valerie N. Rose negotiated a confidential six-figure settlement on behalf of a 93-year-old woman who fractured her femur after being knocked to the ground by a shoplifter fleeing a local grocery store. The defendant argued that it was not responsible for the shoplifter’s actions. Security video cameras in the store captured a store employee chasing the shoplifter through the store. Valerie obtained discovery of the store’s corporate policies governing employee responses to suspected shoplifters via multiple motions to compel the information which were granted. The policies, which had been consistently withheld prior to Law and Motion intervention, revealed that the store had recently laid off its trained loss prevention agents, and repealed a safety rule that forbid untrained store clerks from chasing suspected shoplifters. After this information was uncovered, the case settled one week before trial.