A woman has filed a lawsuit against a major fast-food corporation, alleging negligence that led to her injury. Patricia Sauls filed the complaint in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for Palm Beach County, on August 27, 2024, against McDonald's Corporation.
According to the court documents, Patricia Sauls was a business invitee at a McDonald's restaurant located at 6858 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL on April 30, 2024. While exercising due care and caution for her own safety, she slipped and fell on water in the restroom stall. This incident caused her to hit the ground hard and sustain bodily injuries. The plaintiff asserts that McDonald's Corporation owned, maintained, and controlled the premises where she fell.
The lawsuit accuses McDonald's Corporation of multiple counts of negligence. Sauls claims that the corporation had a non-delegable duty to use reasonable care to maintain and inspect its property to ensure it was safe for pedestrians using its restrooms. She alleges that McDonald's failed in various ways including not maintaining the property in a reasonably safe condition, failing to exercise reasonable care in cleaning and maintaining the restrooms, not warning patrons about hazardous conditions like pooled water on the floor, and failing to correct known dangerous conditions.
Specifically, Sauls lists several breaches of duty by McDonald's:
- Negligently failing to keep premises free from slipping hazards.
- Failing to warn of hazardous conditions caused by defective maintenance.
- Allowing foreign substances like water to gather on restroom floors.
- Not properly training personnel to observe and fix such issues.
- Failing to take reasonable steps after receiving notice of problems.
Sauls argues that these negligent actions or omissions directly resulted in her injuries which include aggravation of pre-existing conditions, pain and suffering, disability, inconvenience, scarring and disfigurement, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life as well as incurring medical expenses. She contends that all these injuries are permanent within a reasonable degree of medical probability and expects damages will continue into the future.
In her filing with Schuler Weisser Zoeller Overbeck & Baxter P.A., Sauls demands judgment for damages exceeding $50,000 plus costs against McDonald’s Corporation. She also requests a trial by jury.
The case is being handled by William D. Zoeller from Schuler Weisser Zoeller Overbeck & Baxter P.A., while Joseph Abruzzo serves as Clerk for Palm Beach County. The case ID is 502024CA008120XXXAMB Div: AE.