Rodriguez

INTRODUCTION

18 Pending before the Court are Plaintiff Michael Rodriguez’s (“Plaintiff” or 19 “Rodriguez”) and Defendant Ralphs Grocery Company’s (“Defendant” or “Store”) Cross 20 Motions for Summary Judgment, filed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. See Doc. Nos. 20, 21 21. The motions have been fully briefed. See Doc. Nos. 24-27. For the reasons explained, 22 the Court GRANTS Defendant’s motion and DENIES Plaintiff’s motion.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

24 Plaintiff Michael Rodriguez shops at his neighborhood grocery store, the Food 4 25 Less located at 312 Euclid Avenue, San Diego California, which is located less than a half 26 mile from his home. The Store has numerous cart corrals located throughout the parking 27 lot where customers are to deposit their shopping carts after use. Occasionally customers 28 dispose of their shopping carts outside of the designated corrals, which are eventually picked-up and retrieved by Store employees. To ensure carts are disposed of into the proper corrals, the Store employs cart associates. The primary duty of the cart associate is to visually inspect the Store’s parking lot and retrieve all shopping carts from outside…