$6.63 Million Verdict Against Home Depot After Customer Falls on Unsafe Store Flooring in Los Angeles
Won by Carpenter & Zuckerman.
A Los Angeles jury awarded Henrietta Castrellon $6,626,603 after she slipped and fell on an unsafe floor condition at a Home Depot store, in a result the Daily Journal described as potentially the largest such verdict against the company in California.
What happened
Henrietta Castrellon was a customer inside a Los Angeles Home Depot store when she encountered a hazardous floor condition and fell, sustaining injuries the jury later classified as painful and debilitating. She filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on August 12, 2020, alleging Home Depot failed to keep its premises in a reasonably safe condition and either knew of the dangerous condition or should have discovered it through proper inspection.
Castrellon's injuries required hospitalization and ongoing therapy and limited her ability to work. Medical records submitted at trial documented both the immediate harm and the long-term care she would need. The defense contested the extent of her injuries and raised comparative negligence, arguing she bore some responsibility for the fall. The jury found that Castrellon was negligent and that her negligence was a substantial factor in causing her harm, then set out her damages in full across every category.
Carpenter and Zuckerman trial lawyer Pejman Ben-Cohen tried the case in Los Angeles Superior Court, with co-counsel Jason Frost of the Sharifi Firm. On September 15, 2025, the jury returned a special verdict, breaking out each category of damages in turn. The panel awarded $653,160.98 for past medical expenses, $973,442 for future medical expenses, $1,750,000 for past non-economic losses, and $3,250,000 for future non-economic losses, reaching a total of $6,626,602.98.
The Los Angeles Daily Journal, which covers the state's legal community, reported the outcome and noted it was potentially the largest slip-and-fall verdict against Home Depot in California history. No post-trial reduction of the award appears in the available court record or published reporting.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Carpenter & Zuckerman
All Carpenter & Zuckerman proven verdicts →A Los Angeles jury awarded $45 million to the four children of Claudia Fernandez after a drunk driver, whose vehicle owner negligently handed over her keys, struck and killed her at a Boyle Heights taco truck in 2012.
A Riverside jury awarded $40 million to the parents of Orlando Jordan after finding that TGI Friday's and its franchise operator bore 55 percent of the responsibility for his death, having repeatedly served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated underage patron who then stabbed Jordan inside the restaurant.
A Newport Beach hotel guest fell two stories from a balcony with a railing eight inches below California building code height, suffered a skull fracture and catastrophic traumatic brain injury, and an Orange County jury returned a $38,628,127 verdict against the hotel in 2012.
In September 2013 a Los Angeles County MTA maintenance van rear-ended a stalled Honda on the Santa Monica Freeway, and both vehicles caught fire. The driver, Xian Hui Lin, 56, died four days later. The MTA admitted responsibility, and a Los Angeles Superior Court jury in March 2016 awarded his widow and two adult children $8.36 million in damages. The parties then settled and waived appeal.
Related slip & fall verdicts
A Cook County jury awarded $32 million to truck driver Stephanie Johnson, who developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after slipping on oil at an ExxonMobil facility, in what the Jury Verdict Reporter recorded as the largest CRPS verdict in Illinois history.
After a neurosurgeon slipped on a wet hospital pantry floor and developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy that ended his surgical career, an Evansville jury found St. Mary's Medical Center fully at fault and awarded $16.95 million, a verdict the Indiana Court of Appeals later affirmed.
A Kern County jury awarded William Kidd and his wife Elaine $16.2 million after he slipped at a Bakersfield El Pollo Loco and suffered a brain injury that later required surgery.
A Clark County jury held Lowe's responsible after Kelly Hendrickson slipped on liquid draining from store planters, fractured her skull, and permanently lost her senses of taste and smell.