Grocery Stores and Customers Have a Business Invitee Relationship

 Posted on October 11, 2017 in Blog Post

Illinois businesses owe state residents a duty of care in protecting them from on-site injuries or exposure to hazardous chemicals or waste. This duty is above and beyond what individuals owe to one another in daily life in ordinary civil society. This is because businesses are soliciting the business of its customers in an effort to exchange goods or services for financial compensation.

A customer, in the eyes of the law, is what is known as an “invitee.” Invitees, importantly, are owed elevating safekeeping under state law. To put this duty in practical terms, the example of a grocery store – a business common to all – is helpful. With all of the people milling about a grocer’s aisles, shopping carts being pushed around (sometimes wildly by children), and some senior citizens utilized motorized shopping vehicles, it is not uncommon for there to be a spill of solid or liquid food on the store’s tile floors. Owing a duty to its “invitee” customer, the grocery store, as a business, must promptly clean up this spills and, in the process, post warning signs to alert customers of the danger of slick floors.

Businesses Owe an Elevated Duty of Care to Invitees

If milk, for example, is spilled on the floor of a grocery store aisle and the store fails to promptly warn and protect customers from the danger, and a slip and fall accident results, the injured customer may seek legal damages from the business in one of the state’s civil courts. A slip and fall accident can be devastating, especially for senior citizens.

A broken hip can have life-altering negative ramifications, including loss of mobility, enjoyment of life, and, of course, unexpected medical expenses. While a financial award of legal damages cannot unbreak a bone or undo a trauma, it can cover medical costs, as well as account for the pain and suffering and injured invitee, has suffered as the result of the negligence of a business.

What to Do if You Have Been Injured at a Business

If you have been injured in a slip and fall on the premises of a grocery store or other business in the Chicago area, contact an experienced Park Ridge premises liability attorney. An experienced attorney will work to assert your legal rights and seek damages for the medical costs and pain and suffering you have experienced, as well as any lost income due to missed work during your recovery.

Sources:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2048