Legal Sufficiency, Factual Sufficiency, and Watermelons

The supreme court’s recent opinion in Pay & Save, Inc. v. Canales involved a grocery-store customer who got his foot stuck in a forklift pallet used to display watermelons.

The court of appeals was unimpressed with the plaintiff’s case, but distinguished between legal and factual sufficiency in its analysis, and thus remanded for a new trial instead of rendering judgment for the defendant. As the supreme court summarized:

“The court of appeals correctly recognized that the evidence shows only ‘a possibility that someone’s foot might enter a pallet opening.’ It still erroneously concluded, however, that such evidence is legally sufficient evidence of an unreasonably dangerous condition. In doing so, it reasoned that ‘the jury could have reasonably inferred that a customer could get a foot stuck in a pallet side opening, which could cause the customer to fall and be injured.’”

The supreme court disagreed, characterized the problem as ine of legal sufficiency, and rendered judgment for the defendant:

“The court of appeals’ error was twofold. First, it assumed that a mere possibility of harm suffices to legally establish the existence of an unreasonable risk of harm. Second, it assumed that it needed to credit the jury’s flawed inference to that effect. We have long held to the contrary.  … As the evidence shows only a mere possibility of harm, it is legally insufficient.”

No. 22-0953 (Tex. June 14, 2024) (per curiam).