Facts
- Jennifer Leigh Hill was convicted of possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia after a warrantless entry by law enforcement into her home, where they discovered drugs and related paraphernalia. [lines="19-20"], [lines="22-26"].
- On March 10, 2022, law enforcement conducted an address check on Hill; upon knocking, her door opened to reveal her asleep in a recliner. [lines="41-48"].
- A search confirmed the presence of firearms and methamphetamine-related items, leading to Hill's arrest. [lines="50-79"].
- Hill claimed her Fourth Amendment rights were violated due to the warrantless entry and alleged she had not waived her rights as a probationer. [lines="24-25"], [lines="82-89"].
- Hill did not file a motion to suppress the evidence obtained during the search or make contemporaneous objections at trial. [lines="96-98"], [lines="131-135"].
Issues
- Whether Hill's Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the warrantless entry into her home by law enforcement. [lines="24-25"].
- Whether Hill preserved her argument about the alleged violation for appeal, given her failure to object at trial. [lines="107-112"].
Holdings
- The court affirmed that the warrantless entry did not violate Hill's rights, as her argument was not preserved for appellate review due to the lack of contemporaneous objections. [lines="39"], [lines="140"].
- The court upheld that issues raised for the first time on appeal, including constitutional matters, generally will not be considered. [lines="111-112"].
OPINION
GRACE GONZALEZ, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. INTERSTATE CLEANING CORPORATION et al., Defendants and Respondents.
E081220 (Super.Ct.No. CIVDS1938974)
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO
Filed 10/25/24
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS. California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
OPINION
APPEAL from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. Wilfred J. Schneider, Jr., Judge. Affirmed.
Law Office of Jacob Emrani and Arturo T. Salinas for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Garrell Cohon Kennedy, Peter E. Garrell, John M. Kennedy and Samantha L. Weinstein for Defendants and Respondents.
Plaintiff Grace Gonzalez appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of defendants Interstate Cleaning Corporation (ICC) and Ontario Mills Limited Partnership (OMLP). Gonzalez slipped and fell when she stepped on oranges that were on the floor of the common walkway of the Ontario Mills Shopping Center, owned and operated by OMLP. ICC was the janitorial company hired to provide maintenance services, including monitoring the floors for spills and debris.
The trial court ruled there was no triable issue of material fact that, because defendants conducted active and frequent inspections of the floors, including where plaintiff fell, defendants had no actual or constructive knowledge of the spilled oranges and could not be held liable for the fall. Because we find no error, we affirm.
I.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
A. The Incident.
Around 3:00 p.m. on December 31, 2007, plaintiff and her two minor granddaughters were walking in the common area of the Ontario Mills Shopping Center in front of a Converse store (between the Converse store and an art kiosk). Plaintiff slipped and fell on what appeared to be oranges. The granddaughters, who were walking two to three steps ahead, saw the oranges and were turning to warn plaintiff when she fell. Earlier in the day, the three had walked in this area of the shopping center but had not seen anything on the floor.
After she fell, plaintiff saw an orange substance she described as the separate, smashed slices of at least one peeled orange. She did not know if the orange had been smashed before or after she fell. Neither plaintiff nor her
An employee from the Converse store helped plaintiff into the store so she could sit and wait for security to arrive. A worker from the art kiosk across from the Converse store cleaned up the oranges. Finally, a shopping center security guard escorted plaintiff in a wheelchair to a family car.
B. Lawsuit and Defendants’ Summary Judgment Motion.
Two years later, plaintiff filed a form complaint against OMLP and ICC alleging a single cause of action for premises liability.
Defendants moved for summary judgment arguing they could not be held liable for plaintiff’s injuries because they had no actual or constructive knowledge of the spilled oranges and could not have remedied the dangerous condition in time to avert the fall.
In support of their motion, defendants submitted evidence of their training and maintenance regimens. When the shopping center is open to the public, the duty and sole goal of janitorial employees of ICC (called “porters“) is to walk predesignated routes and regularly and continuously inspect the common area floors for any liquid or debris. Other porters’ duties are to empty trash bins and maintain the food court area.
Wayne Rodriguez, vice-president of operations for ICC, and the shopping center site manager, conducted a rigorous training program for porters to ensure they understood the importance of the inspections. The training began with 21 days of hands-on training on how to follow the designated porter route (path of travel); how to walk and simultaneously examine and scan the floor for debris, substances, and/or other liquids; and how to clean any conditions they observed. Next, ICC conducted additional training and unannounced testing during the following 30, 60, and 90 days. During that time, Mr. Rodriguez and the site manager tested and examined the porters on how they performed the following tasks: following their designated routes; conducting inspections of the common area floors; blocking off any observable spills and setting up appropriate warnings; and cleaning and drying the floor before leaving the affected area. Finally, after 90 days, porters received regular and unannounced training and testing for the remainder of their employment.
Porters were trained to constantly look down at the floors from left to right and right to left while walking in a “serpentine pattern” so they could
Finally, porters were trained to complete their predesignated routes in the shopping center approximately every 20 to 30 minutes. On the day of plaintiff’s fall, there were 31 ICC porters on duty inspecting the shopping center floors. Ms. Villa, the porter assigned to the area where plaintiff fell on that day, had been employed by ICC since 2015. Mr. Rodriguez personally trained Ms. Villa and he regularly observed Ms. Villa’s work during the two years preceding the incident. He never observed Ms. Villa walk past any debris or spilled items without cleaning the flooring, and she had no disciplinary problems while employed by ICC.
As part of its inspection program, ICC installed an employee tracking system called the “Lighthouse” system to track porters as they conducted their walking inspections. This electronic sweep-sheet system was an improvement on handwritten sweep sheets because it was tamper-proof and recorded in real time. The first part of the system consists of the Lighthouse “beacons” that are domes attached to the ceiling throughout the shopping center common areas at various intervals along porter routes. Defendants introduced beacon maps showing the domes throughout the shopping center. The beacon zones inside the shopping center common area are rectangular and measure 150 feet by 33 feet. The zones overlap at the outer edges so ICC can constantly track porters. While conducting an inspection, a porter is always within range of a beacon dome. A porter can traverse and inspect an entire beacon zone in one minute and 30 seconds.
The second part of the Lighthouse system consists of company cell phones carried by the porters. An application installed on the cell phones communicates with the beacons through Bluetooth technology when a porter enters a beacon zone. The beacon collects data, including the porter’s identity, the porter’s exact location while on their route, and the inspection time while the porter is in the “beacon zone” down to a hundredth of a second. The data is then transmitted in real time to a server maintained by the third party vendor, Lighthouse, which itself is the third part of the system. The data is permanently stored on the server as it is received in real time, and the server is tamper proof.
The fourth part of the system is ICC’s computers, from which Lighthouse reports are generated. Defendants introduced a Lighthouse map and report to establish that beacon zone 3 was constantly monitored on December 31,
Plaintiff opposed the motion contending there were triable issues of material fact whether defendants actively and thoroughly inspected the common area where she fell and, therefore, whether defendants had constructive knowledge of the spilled oranges and the opportunity to clean the spill before plaintiff fell. Inter alia, she argued defendants had not introduced the testimony of Ms. Villa to prove she had thoroughly inspected the common area floor and defendants cited no authority for the proposition that a store owner may prove active inspection with evidence of an automated employee tracking system.1 In support of her opposition, plaintiff introduced the declaration of Brad Avrit, a licensed civil engineer, who opined the floor where plaintiff fell had an unsafe slip resistance and that defendants had constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition before the fall. With minor exceptions, such as objections to arguments and opinions, plaintiff did not dispute most of defendants’ statements of undisputed material facts relating to the accident and to defendant’s training and inspection of the common areas.
In reply, defendants objected to almost the entirety of the declaration of Brad Avrit.2
At the hearing, defendants argued they were not required to introduce testimony from Ms. Villa or video evidence, and the undisputed evidence they did introduce demonstrated they actively inspected the common area floors no more than eight to nine minutes before plaintiff fell. Therefore, defendants argued plaintiff could not establish constructive knowledge of the spilled oranges and summary judgment should be granted.
Plaintiff timely appealed.
II.
DISCUSSION
A. Summary Judgment Principles and Standard of Review.
If the defendant’s prima facie case is met, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to show the existence of a triable issue of material fact with respect to that cause of action or defense. (
“Furthermore, our review is governed by a fundamental principle of appellate procedure, namely, that ‘“[a] judgment or order of the lower court is presumed correct,”’ and thus, ‘“error must be affirmatively shown.”’ [Citation.] Under this principle, plaintiff bears the burden of establishing error on appeal, even though defendants had the burden of proving their right to summary judgment before the trial court.” (Arnold v. Dignity Health (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 412, 423.)
B. The Trial Court Properly Granted Summary Judgment for Defendants.
“The elements of a negligence claim and a premises liability claim are the same: a legal duty of care, breach of that duty, and proximate cause resulting in injury. [Citations.] Premises liability ‘“is grounded in the possession of the premises and the attendant right to control and manage the premises”’; accordingly, ‘“mere possession with its attendant right to control conditions on the premises is a sufficient basis for the imposition of an affirmative duty to act.”’ [Citation.] But the duty arising from possession and control of property is adherence to the same standard of care that applies in negligence cases.” (Kesner v. Superior Court (2016) 1 Cal.5th 1132, 1158.)
“A store owner exercises ordinary care by making reasonable inspections of the portions of the premises open to customers, and the care required is commensurate with the risks involved.” (Ortega v. Kmart Corp. (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1200, 1205 (Ortega).) “‘[T]he owner must use the care required of a reasonably prudent [person] acting under the same circumstances.’” (Ibid.) “This includes a duty to keep the floors safe for patrons’ use.” (Peralta v. The Vons Companies, Inc. (2018) 24 Cal.App.5th 1030, 1035 (Peralta), citing Tuttle v. Crawford (1936) 8 Cal.2d 126, 130.) “Because the owner is not the insurer of the visitor’s personal safety [citation], the owner’s actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition is a key to establishing its liability. Although the owner’s lack of knowledge is not a defense, ‘[t]o
In Ortega, the Supreme Court specifically addressed “under what circumstances, if any, a store owner may be liable for injuries to a business invitee from a dangerous condition on its premises where the evidence fails to show how long the dangerous condition existed prior to the injury.” (Ortega, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 1203.) “[W]here the plaintiff relies on the failure to correct a dangerous condition to prove the owner’s negligence, the plaintiff has the burden of showing that the owner had notice of the defect in sufficient time to correct it.” (Id. at p. 1206.) “The plaintiff need not show actual knowledge where evidence suggests that the dangerous condition was present for a sufficient period of time to charge the owner with constructive knowledge of its existence. Knowledge may be shown by circumstantial evidence ‘which is nothing more than one or more inferences which may be said to arise reasonably from a series of proven facts.’ [Citation.] Whether a dangerous condition has existed long enough for a reasonably prudent person to have discovered it is a question of fact for the jury, and the cases do not impose exact time limitations. Each accident must be viewed in light of its own unique circumstances. [Citation.] The owner must inspect the premises or take other proper action to ascertain their condition, and if, by the exercise of reasonable care, the owner would have discovered the condition, he is liable for failing to correct it.” (Id. at pp. 1206-1207.)
“[A] plaintiff may prove a dangerous condition existed for an unreasonable time with circumstantial evidence, and . . . ‘evidence that an inspection had not been made within a particular period of time prior to an accident may warrant an inference that the defective condition existed long enough so that a person exercising reasonable care would have discovered it.’” (Ortega, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 1210.) “[A]llowing the inference does not change the rule that if a store owner has taken care in the discharge of its duty, by inspecting its premises in a reasonable manner, then no breach will be found even if a plaintiff does suffer injury.” (Id. at p. 1211.)
In Ortega itself, there was evidence the store’s premises had not been inspected for “at least 15 to 30 minutes (and possibly up to two hours)” before the plaintiff slipped in spilled milk and fell. (Ortega, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 1210.) The Supreme Court ruled that on that evidence, a jury would have to decide whether, under the circumstances, that period was unreasonably long and gave rise to an inference the dangerous condition existed long
Plaintiff contends defendants are not entitled to summary judgment because they did not introduce Ms. Villa’s testimony (at deposition or in a declaration) about the adequacy of her inspection of the floors before the fall or other competent evidence such as video showing the inspection. She argues, essentially, there is no authority for a store owner to prove it actively inspected the area in a reasonable manner with a declaration of a knowledgeable employee and evidence of an electronic employee monitoring system.
But plaintiff cites no case that has held the store owner must introduce the testimony of the employee who conducted the inspection, and we have found none. The store owner may prove it exercised reasonable care and inspected the floor within a brief period before the accident with a declaration from a knowledgeable person describing the store’s regular maintenance practices and the record of actual inspections conducted around the time of the plaintiff’s injury. (See, e.g., Peralta, supra, 24 Cal.App.5th at p. 1033 [defendant introduced declaration from store manager describing the store’s “formal inspections” and employee logs showing an employee inspected the floor less than eight minutes before plaintiff fell].) Mr. Rodriguez’s declaration was competent testimony about ICC’s porter training program, its maintenance and employee monitoring regime, and Ms. Villa’s record as a porter. Moreover, he properly laid the foundation for introducing reports showing Ms. Villa inspected the affected area around the time of plaintiff’s fall. The trial court properly considered that evidence.
To contradict defendants’ assertion that Ms. Villa walked the common area in front of the Converse store in a “serpentine” fashion, plaintiff points to the fact the exhibit of the beacon map contained a straight line showing Ms. Villa’s general path of inspection travel from beacon to beacon in the area where plaintiff fell. However, defendants contend the line was merely demonstrative to show the starting and end point of Ms. Villa’s inspection just before 3:00 p.m. and did not represent her exact path of travel. The trial court properly rejected plaintiff’s argument, noting, plaintiff “did not dispute facts associated with the training [Ms. Villa] received associated with inspecting the mall,” which included being trained to walk the floors in a “serpentine” fashion and around obstacles while scanning the floor from side to side.
We conclude the trial court properly ruled the undisputed evidence showed defendants actively inspected the floor, and the eight- to nine-minute interval between the last inspection and plaintiff’s fall was insufficient to demonstrate constructive knowledge.
The appellate court held the banana peel had not been on the floor sufficiently long to impose liability on the store’s owner. “Obviously, the exact time that a dangerous condition must exist in order to charge the proprietor cannot be stated as a matter of law. It can only be held that, in the circumstances of the case now before the court, one and one-half minutes is too short a period. True, there were many employees in the immediate vicinity of where the plaintiff fell. If their duty required that they perceive the presence of the object on the floor within a minute and a half after it fell there, then their duty was not that of ‘ordinary,’ but of ‘utmost’ care. The conclusion is inescapable that the evidence cannot, as a matter of law, be held sufficient without, in effect, applying the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur and casting upon the market proprietor a burden which, in the present state of the law, he is not required to assume.” (Girvetz, supra, 91 Cal.App.2d at p. 832.)
In contrast, the plaintiff in Louie v. Hagstrom’s Food Stores, Inc. (1947) 81 Cal.App.2d 601 fell when she stepped in a puddle of syrup that had oozed out of a broken jar inside a paper bag that had fallen to the concrete floor. (Id. at pp. 603-605.) The evidence showed no employee had inspected the area of the store where the plaintiff fell for between 15 to 25 minutes before the incident, but the plaintiff was unable to introduce “direct evidence of the exact time the bottle was broken” and, consequently, of how long the spill existed before she fell. (Id. at pp. 605-606.) Nevertheless, the appellate court held circumstantial evidence demonstrated the syrup had been on the ground for a substantial period before the customer fell, and that the defendant was not entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. “There is evidence that the puddle of syrup had reached appreciable proportions before the accident. There is evidence of defendant’s own witness that this syrup was quite thick, possessed adhesive qualities, that the day was cold, and that on such a day the syrup would flow quite slowly. It is a reasonable inference that for this heavy thick fluid to have seeped through the paper bag and to
In Alacan v. Target Corp. (C.D. Cal. June 26, 2015, No. CV 14-04564-AB (VBKx)) 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178484, the district court granted summary judgment after finding there was no triable issue the store owner had no constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition. “With respect to constructive notice, the only evidence on the issue is the undisputed evidence that [an employee] inspected the area where Alacan fell 5 to 7 minutes before her fall. Assuming a jury were to find that [an employee] inspected the area where Alacan fell just 7 minutes before the fall, the Court finds as a matter of law that Alacan’s negligence premises liability action fails because a store owner’s inspection within 7 minutes of the fall does not constitute a breach of the duty of care.”4 (Id. at *9-10.)
Here, the undisputed evidence that was credited by the trial court amply demonstrated defendants had adopted employee training and maintenance programs reasonably calculated to ensure regular and active inspections of the floors in the common areas of the shopping center. The undisputed evidence, and the reasonable inferences to be drawn from it, also demonstrated Ms. Villa inspected the area where plaintiff fell between eight to nine minutes before the fall. We therefore agree with the trial court that, under those circumstances, defendants lacked constructive knowledge of the spilled oranges in time to prevent plaintiff’s fall, and they cannot be held liable in negligence for her injuries.
Last, as she did in the trial court, plaintiff argues defendants failed to retain video footage that might have shown they breached their duty of care, and
III.
DISPOSITION
The summary judgment is affirmed. Defendants shall recover their costs on appeal. (
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
McKINSTER
Acting P. J.
We concur:
CODRINGTON
J.
MENETREZ
J.
