Fort Lauderdale Team Secures Defense Verdict for Client in Premises Liability Lawsuit

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (October 27, 2025) - Fort Lauderdale Partner Paul Gamm and Associate Amber Dawson recently obtained a complete defense verdict for their client, a grocery store operator, in a premises liability case in Florida state court.

The accident in question occurred in December 2022, when two vehicles collided at an uncontrolled internal parking lot intersection at the grocery store property. The plaintiff refused to blame the other driver, a non-party at trial. The plaintiff alleged that the intersection should have been controlled with a stop sign because it lacked the appropriate sight distance for drivers to perceive threats from oncoming traffic.

The plaintiff filed suit against the client in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. She claimed she suffered cervical and lumbar herniations, requiring one facet lumbar fusion and two outstanding surgeries.

The case proceeded to a five-day trial. The Lewis Brisbois team argued that the internal intersection was appropriate because it was inside a parking lot and based on the high number of expected interactions, pedestrians, shopping carts, and other cars, the speeds of travel did not require a control at the intersection and the sight distance for that intersection at that speed was appropriate.

The plaintiff admitted that she was using the parking lot not to visit the subject store, but to avoid traffic and traffic control devices on the main street parallel to this parking lot. Based on the answers Mr. Gamm was able to elicit on cross-examination of the plaintiff, Ms. Dawson was able to make the argument that the plaintiff was in fact not a business invitee, but an uninvited licensee. That reduced the duty owed from “knew or should have known” of an allegedly problematic intersection to the lesser standard of having express “knowledge."

Mr. Gamm’s cross-examination of the plaintiff’s parking lot expert closed the deal, when he agreed there was no evidence the property owner had express knowledge that this intersection was problematic.

The court deferred on the directed verdict motions, and the jury returned a resounding victory for the defense in 36 minutes including lunch. The last formal demand to the defendants pretrial was in the upper-six figures. The Lewis Brisbois team made a cost-of- defense offer in the mid-five figures, which was declined. The team has a proposal for settlement dating back 15 months which will entitle it to recovery of attorney’s fees from the plaintiff.