Alabama Supreme Court Says Total Darkness In Working Conditions Constituted Assumption of Risk & Contributory Negligence
The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment granted to defendants Wal-Mart Stores, a general construction company, and employer electrical company by a lower court ruling in the case of a suit brought by a technician for injuries he sustained while repairing a freezer on the premises of a Wal-Mart Super Center.
Plaintiff, a service technician for a refrigeration, heating, and cooling company, responded to a call to repair a low-temperature floor-to-ceiling freezer at a Wal-Mart Super-Center in Muscle Shoals, Ala. The servicing required him to climb through an opening in the ceiling approximately four feet wide in order to work on the freezer’s condensing unit. The light that came through the opening was the only light in the area around the unit. Plaintiff’s testimony at trial was that although he could not see the edge of a drop ceiling which was adjacent to the freezer, he could feel the edge of the drop ceiling with his foot and prior to his falling through the ceiling, he had once lost his balance and almost fallen earlier. After first using a cigarette lighter to give some light to the area, he determined he would need his flashlight which he had left in his truck, and on his return fell through the ceiling and was injured.