Question

A store employee drops a box of oranges while stocking the produce section, and oranges roll all over the floor. a customer steps on an orange and falls, injuring her arm. the customer sues the store employee for negligence. assuming it is true, which of the following would represent a strong defense against the negligence claim?

a) The customer was talking to her friend when the accident happened.

b) The employee had already partially cleaned up the oranges when the customer fell.

c) The customer ignored a barrier that the employee had set up around the produce section of the store.

d) The customer has mounting debts and needs money to pay them off.

Answer 1

A strong defense against the negligence claim would be that the customer ignored a barrier set up by the employee, indicating that the employee took reasonable precautions to prevent injury.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the scenario where a customer sues a store employee for negligence after slipping on an orange, which of the following would represent a strong defense against the negligence claim? The customer ignored a barrier that the employee had set up around the produce section of the store. This defense suggests that the store employee took reasonable actions to prevent harm by setting up a barrier to indicate a potential hazard. Therefore, if the customer consciously chose to disregard the barrier, they might be deemed to have assumed the risk, significantly weakening their negligence claim against the employee.

The strong defense against the negligence claim in this scenario would be option (c) The customer ignored a barrier that the employee had set up around the produce section of the store.

This defense is strong because the store employee took the precautionary measure of setting up a barrier to prevent customers from accessing the area with the fallen oranges, indicating that the employee was aware of the potential danger and took steps to mitigate it.

By ignoring the barrier and entering the area, the customer demonstrated a disregard for their own safety, which could weaken their claim of negligence against the store employee.