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David L. Martin and Jennifer R. Porto won summary judgment on behalf of Costco Wholesale Corp. in Mohamed v. Costco. Plaintiff fell while trying to walk between a sofa and a loveseat that were on display in the Costco Home Store. Dave and Jennifer moved to dismiss all claims against Costco based on the plaintiff’s failure to prove the three requisite elements of premises liability, including that the furniture display was an unreasonably dangerous condition. The court granted Costco’s summary judgment motion and dismissed the action.

Joel E. Wright, Timothy D. Shea, and Erin J. Varriano won summary judgment of dismissal in Shorett, et al. v. CMCS Management, Inc., which plaintiffs sought to bring as a class action. The case involved alleged “fax blasting” in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Washington Unsolicited Fax Law. Prior to this lawsuit, plaintiffs had settled a similar class-action lawsuit based on the same alleged “fax blasting” activities. Joel, Tim, and Erin successfully argued that the parties, claims, and facts were identical to those in the previous matter and that a settlement agreement and release from that previous class action barred the current case. The court agreed and dismissed the action.

Jeffrey P. Downer and Stefanie L. Peppard won on appeal after winning summary judgment in superior court in Losh v. Kertsman, a breach-of-lease case. Jeff and Stefanie’s client, plaintiff Losh, was the lessor of commercial space in Renton, Washington. Kertsman was the original lessee on the five-year lease agreement. Kertsman subleased the property to Grover LLC and Grover, who in turn assigned the sublease to Sushkin. When Sushkin defaulted on the lease, Losh sued all three defendants. The trial court granted Losh’s motion for summary judgment, finding all defendants jointly and severally liable for the breach and awarding attorney fees and costs to Losh pursuant to the lease. Grover appealed, arguing that the sublease between Kertsman and Grover was not binding on Grover individually, as opposed to his LLC. Grover also argued that the lease violated the statute of frauds and therefore was not valid as anything more than a month-to-month tenancy. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s orders on all counts, holding Grover personally liable, finding that Grover’s partial performance under the lease removed the agreement from the statute of frauds, and awarding Losh costs and fees on the appeal.

Donna M. Young recently tried Ozuna v. ABC Corp. in a one-day arbitration. The plaintiff slipped and fell on water in the main entranceway of the ABC’s store. The plaintiff suffered injuries to her left arm and side and incurred special damages of approximately $28,286 and sought jurisdictional limits of $50,000 from the arbitrator. The plaintiff’s sole theory for liability was that there was display of bottled water in close proximity to the water on the floor. Plaintiff argued that this fact, coupled with the defendant’s use of box cutters to remove plastic from the water bottle cases, made it probable that the store caused the spill of the water when it set up the display. There was no evidence that ABC’s employees knew of the spill before the plaintiff’s fall or how long it had been on the floor. The arbitrator ruled in favor of ABC Corp. on the issue of liability because the proximity of the water-bottle display and the use of box cutters, without more, was insufficient to establish the water bottles were the source of the water spill. ... In Askman v. ABC Corp., the Court of Appeals granted a motion on the merits by Philip B. Grennan and Janis G. Pelletier, affirming summary judgment. The case involved a slip and fall in which a security camera captured footage of a customer causing a spill in an aisle in the store. Plaintiff then slipped several minutes later. There was no evidence that ABC’s employees learned of the spill between the first customer’s spill and the plaintiff’s fall. However, when ABC’s employee downloaded the footage from the security cameras, she inadvertently created a 55-second gap between the spill and slip-and-fall events. Plaintiff argued that the 55-second gap constituted spoliation. The trial court disagreed, finding that the manager offered a reasonable explanation for the gap and granting summary judgment to ABC. Plaintiff appealed. Phil and Janis filed a motion on the merits that the Court of Appeals granted, affirming the trial court’s order granting summary judgment.