A Texas jury thought Roel Canales deserved $6 million for tripping over a pallet holding watermelons at the Pay and Save grocery store, but the Texas Supreme Court wasn’t buying it.
Even if a jury thinks the openings in the pallet presented an unreasonable risk of harm, there’s no evidence to support their conclusion, the state high court ruled in a June 14 decision. No one had ever reported an injury from a watermelon display at any of Pay and Save’s 150 stores, the court observed, and there was a “complete absence” of reports from other large chains in Texas.
“Common or innocuous hazards are not unreasonably dangerous as a matter of law,” the court ruled. “Without this doctrine, a grocery store and everything in and around it could be characterized as unreasonably dangerous.”
