Slipping on a banana peel is, of course, a classic clichéd accident depicted in cartoons. As my 1Ls get ready to tackle the famous trilogy of banana peel slip and fall cases in the Prosser, Wade & Schwartz Torts casebook next week, the nagging question that lingers is: do people really slip on banana peels?
A previous post discussed this issue, but check this out. It’s a 1927 Tennessee death certificate for a 74-year-old hospitalized man. A bit hard to read, but the highlighted note written across the top and going down the right side says:
Inquiry at Hospital: They state that patient slipped on banana peeling and fell shortly before death.
Yes, people did slip on banana peels – and orange peels. It was so bad that the Washington DC city counsel took up the issue during the middle of the Civil War. Read more here:
http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-slippery-history-of-banana-peel-gag.html