Court: Don't Blame High Heels For Slip & Fall

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - A state appeals court Friday overturned a circuit judge's ruling that a woman was partially negligent in a slip-and-fall accident because she was wearing high-heeled shoes.

The decision by the 5th District Court of Appeal came in a St. Johns County case that stemmed from injuries suffered by Jennifer Bongiorno, who fell on a slippery bathroom floor at an office building where she worked. Bongiorno, who filed a lawsuit against the property owner, Americorp, Inc., was wearing 4-to-5 inch heels at the time of the accident.

A circuit judge ruled that Americorp and Bongiorno were each 50 percent negligent for the injuries, with the company pointing in part to evidence that a co-worker was able to avoid falling on the bathroom floor because she was wearing "safer footwear," according to Friday's decision.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court, however, rejected the circuit judge's conclusion and sent the case back with instructions for a judgment in favor of Bongiorno.

"Americorp failed to sustain its burden of proving that Bongiorno created a foreseeable zone of risk by wearing high-heeled shoes to work and, therefore, the trial court erred in finding her comparatively negligent for her injuries,'' said the decision, written by appeals-court Judge William Palmer and joined by judges Thomas Sawaya and Wendy Berger.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.