Nicholas S. Seamster - Wicker, Smith, O'Hara, McCoy & Ford, P.A.

Profile

Nicholas S. Seamster, a shareholder in the firm’s Melbourne office, has been with Wicker Smith for the entirety of his legal career. He first joined the firm as a law clerk in the West Palm Beach office in 2006 and spent the next 20 years there handling general liability and trucking negligence matters, before returning to his hometown of Brevard County in 2026 to assume the leadership of the firm’s Melbourne office.

Nicholas’s practice is primarily focused on the defense of retail business establishments such as grocery stores, health clubs, and quick-service restaurant chains. He has extensive experience in slip/trip and fall cases, as well as negligent security cases involving shootings, stabbings, and robberies. He also regularly handles products liability matters for these same clients, including claims regarding defective tires, gym equipment, and food or produce.

Additionally, Nicholas is involved in the representation of commercial motor vehicle carriers. He has represented some of the firm’s biggest clients in court, and as a member of the firm’s rapid response transportation team, he has responded to numerous accident scenes involving catastrophic losses. He also has experience in construction litigation relating to claims involving defective windows, doors, HVAC, fire suppression, stucco and roofing systems in both residential and commercial settings.

In all matters, Nicholas’s approach is to move quickly at the onset of a case, gathering as much information and evidence as possible, in order to formulate possible theories of liability and what the defenses will be. He works to think outside the box and several steps ahead, so he is always prepared to shift his strategy if necessary in order to produce a satisfactory outcome for his client. He is skilled at resolving cases prior to trial, and regularly prevails in summary judgment hearings in a variety of practice areas.

Prior to joining Wicker Smith, Nicholas worked in the Real Estate Division for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, assisting the Florida Real Estate Commission and the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board with various legal issues.

Nicholas is a graduate of Florida State University and St. Thomas University College of Law.

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Credentials

Education

St. Thomas University College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2008)
Florida State University (B.S., 2003)

Representative Matters

Summary Judgment: Palm Beach County, Florida (Premises Liability)

West Palm Beach Partner, Nicholas S. Seamster, and Associate, Ryan Denish, recently obtained summary judgment on behalf of a large Florida-based grocery store in a slip and fall case in Palm Beach County, Florida. Plaintiff in this case slipped on an unknown substance in the soap and detergent aisle. She claimed injuries to her left foot, right knee, and right hand. Store employees doing routine area checks testified that they didn’t notice anything on the floor during multiple passes through the subject area minutes before the fall, and video surveillance showed several customers moving through the aisle where Plaintiff’s fall occurred without incident. Based on this evidence, we moved for summary judgment arguing that the substance in question could not have been on the floor for more than about 55 seconds, and as such, the grocery store would not have had actual or constructive knowledge of the potentially dangerous condition. The court agreed, and summary judgment was granted. Congratulations to Ryan, who wrote and argued this motion, and to Nicholas, who supervised the handling of this file.

Summary Judgment Affirmed: Palm Beach County, FL (Premises Liability)

West Palm Beach partner Nicholas Seamster and associate Anthony Crum recently had a summary judgment ruling affirmed by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal. The underlying case involved a slip and fall at a Publix Super Markets location in Palm Beach County in 2019. Plaintiff alleged that she slipped in a large puddle of water, and further alleged that the puddle had been left by another customer’s child 17 minutes prior to her fall. Video footage of the incident showed no evidence of any definitive source of spilled water, and also showed a store employee in the vicinity of the area as well as numerous customers walking through the area of the alleged puddle without incident prior to Plaintiff’s fall. Further, the Plaintiff could not rule out that the source of the water was due to a customer with a tipped over water bottle in their cart approximately one minute prior to the Plaintiff’s fall. Plaintiff claimed multiple injuries to her knee, neck, back, and groin as a result of the incident. She underwent multiple rounds of injections, two extensive lumbar surgeries, and a hernia surgery following her fall, with claimed medical bills in excess of $1.2 million. We moved for summary judgment based on Publix’s lack of actual or constructive notice of the alleged dangerous condition. The trial court agreed, and summary judgment was granted in May 2023. Plaintiff timely appealed, and the matter came before the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal for oral argument in early October 2024. After hearing arguments of counsel, the Court issued a per curiam affirmance on October 11. Congratulations Nick and Anthony on this excellent outcome.

Ruling Affirmed: Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal (Professional Negligence)

Orlando Partner, Michael D'Lugo, and West Palm Beach Partners, Mark Ruff and Nicholas Seamster, recently prevailed in a matter heard by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal. This was a professional negligence claim brought by a contractor against our client, an engineer, stemming from the construction of two sewage pump stations. The Plaintiff claimed that our client negligently designed and negligently administered the project, causing the contractor to fall behind and to be improperly terminated by the city that had originally commissioned the project. The Plaintiff sought over $12 million in actual and consequential damages. Several counts of the Complaint were disposed of via summary judgment prior to trial, and Mark Ruff and Nicholas Seamster tried the case on the remaining counts in Palm Beach County, Florida, in February 2022. Although the jury awarded approximately $100,000 in damages and split the liability equally between the Plaintiff and our client, we moved for a directed verdict which was granted post-trial. Plaintiff appealed the directed verdict in June 2023, and Michael D’Lugo filed our Answer Brief in October 2023. In early June, the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed without discussion on all issues related to our client.

Practices

Education

St. Thomas University College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2008)
Florida State University (B.S., 2003)

Credentials

Admitted to Bar

2008, Florida
2010, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida

Professional Affiliations

The Florida Bar
Palm Beach County Bar Association
Brevard County Bar Association
Phi Delta Phi
Phi Theta Kappa