According to Florida law, constructive knowledge is the inference of knowledge based on existing law or legal principles. For example, under Florida’s Premises Liability statute (768.0755), constructive knowledge, based on circumstantial evidence, infers that a business establishment is aware, or has knowledge, of a dangerous condition:
(1) If a person slips and falls on a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment, the injured person must prove that the business establishment had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it. Constructive knowledge may be proven by circumstantial evidence showing that:
(a) The dangerous condition existed for such a length of time that, in the exercise of ordinary care, the business establishment should have known of the condition; or
(b) The condition occurred with regularity and was therefore foreseeable.
And, according to Florida case law:
Constructive knowledge *47 may be proven by circumstantial evidence showing “defects which have been in existence so long that they could have been discovered by the exercise of reasonable care, and repaired.” City of Jacksonville v. Foster, 41 So.2d 548, 549 (Fla.1949). Accord Castano v. City of Miami, 840 So.2d 412 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003).
See: Freeman v. BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., 954 So. 2d 45 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007).
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