Tracy J. Renshaw has sued Outback Steakhouse for $1.5 million after saying she slipped and fell at a Sterling, Virginia location in May 2023 while walking to the washroom. The lawsuit, filed in March 2025, puts the company’s response under a microscope just as its notice of removal opens the door to a possible move from state court to federal court.
Renshaw says the fall happened when she stepped on what appeared to be mashed potatoes on the floor. She says the accident left her with serious and permanent injuries, along with medical bills and a loss of ability to work. That is the claim now driving the outback steakhouse slip fall case and the reason the filing is drawing attention beyond a routine premises dispute.
The complaint says the restaurant failed in its duty of ordinary care because the substance had not been cleaned up and no warning was posted. Outback has denied that there was any substance on the floor and denied that Renshaw was injured at all. It also argued that if an accident happened, Renshaw contributed to it, and said that if mashed potatoes were on the floor they would have been obvious to anyone, including her.
There is another wrinkle. Outback said it could neither confirm nor deny that it has a location in Sterling, Virginia, even though the claim centers on a fall there. Yelp also has reviews for a now-closed Outback location in Sterling, with the most recent review posted in August 2023, adding a small but telling layer to a case built around whether the restaurant and the alleged accident can be pinned down cleanly.
For now, the legal fight is less about a meal than about what a court believes happened on the floor. If the removal succeeds, the case will shift into federal court, but the key question behind the lawsuit remains untouched: whether mashed potatoes were there at all when Renshaw says she fell.
