Illinois Man Sues West Virginia Target in Slip and Fall Case

An Illinois man is suing a Target store in West Virginia after suffering a slip and fall inside the business. The man, Jerald Goldfarb, and his wife Meryl, are both suing the retailer after Jerald allegedly suffered an injury when he slipped and fell in the business.

According to The West Virginia Record, the couple filed the lawsuit on October 22 against Target Corporation and John Doe Corporation. The incident happened over a year ago, on November 26, 2013, when Goldfarb slipped and fell on a slick patch of floor near the checkout. He claims that the store was negligent, and that that was the cause of his fall.

As he was being escorted to a sitting area to wait to speak with a manager, Goldfarb alleges that the employee admitted that the floors were polished and waxed every day and that they were slippery.

Goldfarb suffered fractured kneecaps in his fall. In 2012, medical costs that resulted from falls were an estimated $30 billion.

The case is now headed to district court, where the Goldfarbs will seek compensatory damages and court costs. Altogether, expenses associated with personal injury like medical costs, lost wages, and employer costs, amounted to about $267.5 billion last year. Goldfarb’s wife is suing for loss of consortium.

When personal injury lawsuits like these actually go to trial — and many of them do not — plaintiffs only win half of the time, so it’s not clear whether or not the Goldfarbs will get the compensation they are seeking in this case.

Additionally, identifying liability and negligence in these cases can be complicated. Typically, however, there needs to have been a slippery and dangerous floor, the slipperiness must have caused the fall, and the business would have to have had sufficient time to learn of the condition of the floor but done nothing about it.