What Evidence Matters in a Costco Parking Lot or Entrance Injury?

Before anything else, find out who controlled the exact spot where you were hurt. The parking lot, the walkway and the entrance mat may have different answers.

What is the short answer?

Control of the specific area comes first. After that come the condition, notice, warnings and causation. An injury on Costco property does not make Costco responsible for everything that happens there.

Why does it matter who owns the asphalt?

Q: I stepped in a pothole in the far rows of the lot. Isn't that Costco's problem?

Maybe. It depends on who owns and maintains that asphalt, and the membership desk usually can't tell you.

Q: Who else could it be?

A shopping-center landlord, a property manager, or the contractor who sweeps the lot on Tuesdays.

Q: Why does that come first?

Because it decides who you can make a claim against. Whose hole it was matters before how deep it was.

Hiring a contractor doesn't end the question of who still had control. The store and the contractor may both need a hard look.

What did the Texas Supreme Court say about dangers you can see?

Start with Randy Austin. He was a Kroger employee in Mesquite, sent to mop up an oily liquid that had leaked into the store's restrooms. He put out wet-floor signs, knew exactly how slick it was, and fell anyway. In Austin v. Kroger Texas, L.P., 465 S.W.3d 193 (Tex. 2015), the Texas Supreme Court used his case to restate the general rule: owners usually don't have to warn about dangers that are open and obvious. It also confirmed two narrow exceptions. One, necessary use, covers someone who had to cross the danger and couldn't protect himself even knowing it was there.

Then look at the two workers in Los Compadres Pescadores, L.L.C. v. Valdez (Tex. 2021). They were drilling pilings for a South Padre Island condo under a high-voltage line. Both knew the line was there. Both had been told, they said, that the power was off. It wasn't. The court said the line itself was obvious, but the fact that it was live was not obvious as a matter of law.

Does that rule help a contractor who gets hurt?

No. In JMI Contractors, LLC v. Medellin (Tex. June 26, 2026), a roofer working as an independent contractor stepped off the edge of a San Antonio apartment roof while pulling membrane and fell about 30 feet. A jury found for him. The Texas Supreme Court reversed and held that independent contractors can't recover in premises liability for an open and obvious danger. Whether you were a customer, a worker or a contractor can change the analysis.

What should you photograph, and how?

Shoot from the height of a person walking toward the spot, not from a crouch. That's the view a jury needs.

What does a dispute look like?

Here is a hypothetical example, not an actual case. It has rained since lunch, and at 6:20 p.m. a member catches her toe on the near corner of the entrance mat. She says the corner was flipped up when she came through the doors. The store says a shopper kicked it loose at 6:19. Its 6:05 video shows carts rolling over the mat with that corner just out of frame, and the only photo of the raised edge was taken at 6:35.

That photo can't settle it alone. The next steps:

1. Pull every door camera from 5:45 to 6:20.
2. Get the mat company's service log for the week.
3. Stand where she stood and check whether a cart corral hid that corner.
4. Leave the rain out. "It was raining, so it was slippery" gives a jury nothing to decide.

Your first-day checklist

• Photos from walking height, with a coin or tape measure for scale
• The time, the weather and any cones or signs you could see
• Names of the employee who helped you and anyone who saw it
• A written request that the store keep the door and lot video

Frequently asked questions

A car hit me in the Costco lot. Is Costco responsible?

The driver's conduct comes first. The lot's design may matter in some cases.

It was pouring. Doesn't that make the wet entrance Costco's fault?

Not by itself. You need proof about the specific water or the specific mat.

A contractor maintains the lot. Who do I go after?

The contractor and the store may both need to be investigated.

Should I take photos the same day?

Yes, with something for scale, before anyone fixes or moves anything. Then read how to prove Costco knew about a spill, how a Costco injury case is litigated in Texas, or the Costco injury claims in Texas hub.

Sources

1. Austin v. Kroger Texas, L.P., 465 S.W.3d 193 (Tex. 2015)
2. Los Compadres Pescadores, L.L.C. v. Valdez, No. 19-0643 (Tex. 2021)
3. JMI Contractors, LLC v. Medellin, No. 24-0846 (Tex. June 26, 2026)

This article is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not make you our client, and every claim turns on its own facts and deadlines.