A Florida appeals court has upheld a jury verdict against Walmart, ruling that the retail giant is liable for injuries sustained by an independent contractor who was severely shocked by an ungrounded electrical junction box while working in a locked area of a store.
On Wednesday, June 24, 2026, the Florida Second District Court of Appeal rejected an appeal by ‘Wal-Mart Stores East, LP’, cementing a final judgment for Joseph Johnson. Johnson had sued the retailer for negligence following a 2020 workplace accident in a Hillsborough County store that left him injured.
The legal dispute centered on whether Walmart could shield itself from liability using the independent contractor defense. Typically, business owners are not held responsible for injuries to independent contractors doing work they were hired to perform. However, Judge Sleet wrote for the court that Walmart could not escape liability because it negligently maintained a dangerous condition that it should have known about.
The incident occurred in July 2020 while Johnson was working as a service technician for D.H. Pace Door Company. He was tasked with removing an old manual door and putting in a new automatic door in the store’s order pick-up area. Connecting the new door required linking it to the store’s power supply through an existing metal junction box.
Because the junction box was located in a restricted area, a store manager had to use a key card to let Johnson inside. To safely handle the electrical wires, Johnson needed to shut off the power. He went to the store’s breaker room but found approximately 200 breakers completely unlabeled. Fearing that cutting power randomly would disrupt store operations, Johnson used a voltmeter to check the box instead.
When he climbed a ladder and took off the screws of the junction box plate, he touched the loosened metal cover. He was immediately struck by an electrical current.
During the trial, Johnson described the terrifying moment: “I’m reaching forward to take the cover off, and I’m instantly getting shocked. . . . I was screaming. I was trapped in it, but I somehow pushed . . . myself off and the last thing I remember is falling backwards.”
The fall onto the concrete floor caused injuries to Johnson’s head. When he managed to climb back up to investigate, he discovered that the wires inside the box were completely uncapped and the grounding wire was loose and unfastened.
Expert forensic electrical engineers for both sides testified at trial, agreeing that the box violated the National Electrical Code, which is legally part of the Florida Building Code. Because a metal box is legally required to be grounded, touching its exterior shell should have been perfectly safe. Curtis Falany, Johnson’s expert, testified that the ungrounded box was “electrically dangerous” and that touching it “should be as safe as turning on a light switch.”
Falany added that “somebody at Walmart knew that box wasn’t connected” because “it’s Walmart’s box [and] Walmart’s store.” He told the court, “Whatever was done was done by or through Walmart. So someone, somewhere in their system, knew the box wasn’t properly wire nutted and wasn’t properly attached to the wall.”
Even Walmart’s own expert witness, Joseph Nowikowski, conceded that the box should have been grounded and that “as the owner of the premises, Walmart was responsible . . . for providing a safe workplace for Mr. Johnson.”
Walmart fought the case by arguing that it did not direct or control the specific methods Johnson used to do his job. The appeals court rejected this argument, pointing out that Johnson was hired to install a door, not to repair a hidden, faulty electrical system. Because the hazardous box was kept inside a locked room that only Walmart staff could access, and because it had remained unchanged for years, the court determined that Walmart had constructive knowledge of the danger.
The three-judge panel, consisting of Chief Judge Lucas, Judge Sleet, and Judge Rothstein-Youakim, unanimously affirmed the trial court’s decision to deny Walmart’s motions for summary judgment and directed verdict, leaving the jury’s original ruling intact.
READ: Flu Outbreak Forces Pentagon Turnabout: Vaccine Mandates Return For Troops
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
