Sean Keenan and Eric M. Schultz won summary judgment in a slip and fall case under the Equal Knowledge doctrine, which the Georgia Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed. The plaintiff was shopping at defendant’s store when he stepped up onto a pallet to retrieve an item. When he turned around to walk off the pallet and back into the aisle, his foot caught between the plats of the pallet and he fell forward, sustaining a tear to his rotator cuff.
Cruser Mitchell filed its Motion for Summary Judgment on the theory that the pallet was a static condition and that Stewart had equal knowledge based on testimony solicited during plaintiff’s deposition. The trial court and the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed, finding that the pallet was a static condition and that plaintiff had equal knowledge as a matter of law since he had traversed the same alleged hazard moments before his fall, and because he had traversed similar pallets previously.