Erica Durhamv.Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. Et Al.
Erica Durham sued Dollar Tree and its floor-care contractor after slipping on a wet spot in a Georgia store. A jury found the defendants negligent but assigned Durham 50 percent of the fault, reducing her damages to zero under Georgia’s comparative-fault statute. Durham moved for a new trial, challenging the apportionment instruction and the trial court’s handling of a juror who fell asleep. The Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed the denial of a new trial and remanded for further proceedings. The majority held that the apportionment charge was incomplete because it did not explain that a party must be more than 50 percent responsible before recovering damages, and that Durham did not waive the issue by failing to object after the charge. A separate opinion disagreed about waiver and would have addressed the sleeping-juror issue differently.
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