Ana Carranza slipped and fell on the morning of April 27, 2011 in the Ralphs store in Compton.  The fall occurred near the self-contained juice cooler at the end (or back) of Aisle 1.

Plaintiff alleged that she slipped on water that had leaked into the aisleway from the cooler which was owned by Ralphs; that the leak was a slow leak Ralphs employees should have noticed prior to the most recent sweep; that the Ralphs employees were not adequately trained on how to deal with a leak versus a spill; and that there was no reasonable policy in place to prevent overflow from drain pans in self-contained coolers located on store premises. 

Defendant alleged from the video that plaintiff had her head buried in a newspaper when she was walking; that plaintiff was not paying attention to where she was walking and almost walked right into a display of canned goods; that the video did not depict any substance on the floor; that the sweep sheets were in compliance; that Ralphs was not on notice of any substance on the floor; that Ralphs had an adequate maintenance policy of the cooler that involved a contract with Source Refrigeration; and that the alleged substance on the floor, if it did exist, did not create a dangerous condition. 

Ana Isabel Carranza is a 43 yr old married Spanish speaking mother to five children, ages 25, 22, 16, 14, and 10.  Ms. Carranza landed on her left knee with the left foot bent inward and the right leg stretched outward.  Five months post-incident she underwent left knee arthroscopic surgery, received one sympathetic injection, was then diagnosed with CRPS, and received a spinal cord stimulator. Past medical bills were $230,000 and plaintiff’s life care plan was $1.5 mil.  Defendant contended that plaintiff did not have CRPS, argued that the reasonableness of the past medical bills were under $100,000, and contended that plaintiff’s life care plan included a number of unrelated surgeries.