DARCARS Toyota faces trial after employee mops floor without sign

The attendant mopped the floor. He did not put out a wet-floor sign before, during, or after. Once done, he left the area to fetch one – stored roughly a minute’s walk away. 

He never made it back in time. The advisor, who had watched the whole thing, called the customer to the desk to pick up her car. She walked over, slipped on the wet floor, and fell. 

She sued DARCARS on two counts: premises liability, and negligent hiring, training, and supervision. The circuit court sided with the dealership on both, ruling it did not have enough time to post a sign. The Appellate Court of Maryland reversed on the premises liability count, and DARCARS took the fight to the state’s top court. 

The dealership leaned on a 2003 case where a restaurant dodged liability after a patron spilled drinks in a food court and someone else slipped before staff could react. But that involved a hazard created by a third party – no one on the restaurant’s payroll saw it coming. 

The Supreme Court was not persuaded. The lot attendant created the wet floor himself, as part of an assigned task. A jury could reasonably find that the dealership had options – put the sign out before mopping, warn the customer on her way over, or not call her to the freshly mopped area.