Austin v. Shoney's, Inc.

In this appeal we consider whether the trial court properly sustained the defendant’s renewed motion to strike the plaintiff’s evidence in a slip and fall case after the jury was unable to return a verdict. Under well settled principles, we view the evidence and the inferences reasonably raised thereby in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, whose evidence was stricken. Meador v. Lawson, 214 Va. 759, 761, 204 S.E.2d 285, 287 (1974).

Jane Pauline Austin, 70 years old, was dining with her family on the morning of October 16, 1993 at a restaurant in Norfolk owned by Shoney’s, Inc. Austin…