Colorado Jury Awards $6.9 Million to Shopper Who Slipped on Solvent Residue at Kohl's

A Kohl's employee spent part of a shift peeling COVID-era decals off the floor near the self-checkout lanes, using a solvent similar to Goo Gone. Store policy called for caution signs while that work was underway and for the floor to be washed with soap and water once the decals came up. Neither step happened. The worker wiped each spot with a paper towel and moved to the next one. The residue left behind was nearly invisible on the light tile. A 60-year-old shopper came through a short time later, and her feet shot out from under her. A store camera recorded the fall, including her head striking an end table and then the floor.

The injuries were lasting. She suffered a mild traumatic brain injury along with visual dysfunction, occipital neuralgia, and a jaw injury, all of them permanent. In the months that followed she developed Functional Neurological Disorder, also called Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder, a condition that produced involuntary movements, an unsteady gait, and stilted, robotic speech. Generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress came with it.

Kohl's denied responsibility for a long stretch of the case, then admitted liability shortly before trial. That admission moved the fight to one question: how much the harm was worth. The defense argued the woman was exaggerating. Its neuropsychologist went further and told the jury she was malingering, faking her symptoms for money. The defense combed through a 1,700-page journal she had kept after the fall and pointed to her scores on a standardized psychological test, the MMPI-3, as supposed proof.

Ramos Law attorneys Jared Mazzei and Jessica McBryant took the malingering accusation apart. Mazzei bought the actual MMPI-3 test manual and, working with a rebuttal neuropsychologist, built a side-by-side comparison of what the manual said each score meant against what the defense expert claimed it meant. The two readings did not match. The point was plain: the defense had read the test wrong. The trial team also played hospital footage of the woman relearning to walk, her body moving on its own, alongside the surveillance video of the original fall.

The jury awarded $6,945,040 in all. The largest piece was $4,875,000 for physical impairment, with the rest going to non-economic and economic damages.