On May 31, 2011, at around 4 p.m., plaintiff Ciara Phillips, 23, a special education teacher, was with her husband and daughter as they entered through the garden entrance of a Wal-Mart store in Elk Grove. The garden center was covered by a mesh sunshade, which allowed the plants to be safe from direct sunlight, but allowed rain to enter. About an hour later, after it had been raining for several minutes, Phillips attempted to leave the store via the same garden center entrance. However, while she was placing her receipt from the greeter into her purse, she walked four or five steps onto the wet floor and slipped and fell forward onto her knees. Approximately 20 feet away stood a 3-foot-tall orange “wet floor” cone. Phillips claimed she injured her left knee in the fall. Phillips sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc., alleging that the store failed to appropriately warn of the wet floor, creating a dangerous condition. Specifically, Phillips testified that she did not know it was raining, as when she was exiting, she was looking down when placing the receipt into her purse. Defense counsel contended that Phillips had walked past the orange “wet floor” cone on her way into the store and that it was still present on her way out of the store. Counsel also contended that the rainwater was an open and obvious condition, and that it did not require any warning. Counsel further contended that the garden center was an outdoor portion of the store and that there was no way to keep the entire floor dry, nor could the employees be asked to warn every person of rain. In addition, defense counsel contended that Phillips was wearing flip flops on the subject date, which likely caused her fall., Phillips sustained a tear of the medial collateral ligament and a dislocation patella of her left knee. Her husband subsequently drove her to an emergency room, where she was placed in two different braces. Phillips then treated with physical therapy for approximately six weeks until mid-July 2011. On March 6, 2012, Phillips presented to her treating physician, an orthopedist, with complaints that her pain had returned to her left knee after she had resumed running for exercise. The physician subsequently diagnosed Phillips with patellar tendinitis and chondromalacia. Phillips claimed she missed five days from work and could not participate in snowboarding, wakeboarding, golfing or fishing with her family. She also claimed she was upset because she could not sit on the floor with her daughter to open her presents during her daughter’s 1-year-old birthday party, which was a few days after the subject incident. Phillips further claimed that she was a maid of honor in a friend’s wedding a few days after the incident, but that she had to wear a knee brace and hobble down the aisle due to her . In addition, she claimed that after returning to running and seeing her physician in March 2012, she continued to suffer knee pain and could no longer enjoy the recreational activity. At trial, Phillips claimed she still experienced significant pain in the left knee. The plaintiff’s treating physician opined that the subsequent knee pain that Phillips’ suffers was related to the subject accident. Defense counsel contended that Phillips’ MCL tear healed within six weeks of physical therapy and that her subsequent knee pain was not due to the subject accident, but was, instead, related to Phillips’ return to running. Counsel accordingly noted the gap in treatment that Phillips had. In addition, defense counsel noted that during depositions, Phillips’ treating physician originally could not say whether Phillips’ subsequent knee pain was attributable to the subject incident.