Portland shopper settles lawsuit over supermarket fall and brain injury
Maria Torres, 71, reached an undisclosed settlement with Fred Meyer after suing the supermarket chain over a 2023 fall in its Portland store. She alleged that water from a leaking roof caused a traumatic brain injury; the case raised questions about whether the store knew of the leak and had time to address it.
Torres was shopping for bananas when she slipped near a checkout aisle and hit her head. She was hospitalised for three days and diagnosed with a concussion, and her lawsuit said she continued to have headaches, tinnitus and difficulty walking, sometimes needing a wheelchair. She sought $6 million in compensatory damages and about $27.5 million in punitive damages; Fred Meyer denied liability, saying the leak had developed only minutes before the fall.
- Maria Torres settled her lawsuit with Fred Meyer for an undisclosed amount.
- She sought about $33.5 million over a 2023 fall in the store.
- The chain denied liability, disputing how long the leak had been present.
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A customer injured in a shop can seek compensation if the business failed to take reasonable steps to keep the premises safe. In a case involving a leak, a key question is often whether the shop knew, or should have known, about the hazard and had time to deal with it.
Maria Torres said a roof leak left water on the floor of a Fred Meyer supermarket in Portland, where she fell and hit her head. Her lawsuit described lasting health problems after the fall; Fred Meyer disputed responsibility and said the leak had begun only minutes earlier.
The case concerned how responsibility for an injury is assessed when a hazard may have appeared shortly before an accident. It also involved claims for compensation for medical and other effects, as well as punitive damages, which are intended to punish particularly serious misconduct.
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The case for
Torres’s case is that a supermarket has a duty to keep aisles reasonably safe and to act on hazards it knows about, or should discover through proper inspection. If the roof leak was present long enough to be noticed, the store’s failure to contain or warn about it could have caused a serious, lasting injury; substantial damages could reflect both her reported suffering and the need to deter unsafe practices.
The case against
Fred Meyer’s case is that it cannot reasonably prevent every sudden hazard, and that a leak developing only minutes before the fall may not have allowed time for staff to find and fix it or warn shoppers. If the store lacked prior notice and followed reasonable inspection procedures, the fall may have been an accident rather than negligence; punitive damages would also require a stronger basis than the injury alone.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Cleaner, 71, sued supermarket chain for $33m after she slipped in puddle of water and toppled to the ground”.