Water leaking from a refrigerator
We have acted for a client who slipped and fell sustaining a fracture to her hip, when she slipped on water which had been leaking from a refrigerator. Whilst we were unable to say how long the water had been leaking from the refrigerator, by the nature of the large puddle of water, it had clearly been leaking for some time. The supermarket obviously did not have a proper system of inspecting and cleaning the floor of the supermarket to detect that water had been leaking and this was considered to be unreasonable. A reasonable supermarket in that position should have known that the refrigerator was leaking and cleaned up the water before a customer slipped and fell.
2. Hot chips on the floor
Woolworths were forced to pay compensation after a woman slipped on hot chips that had been spilled on the floor. The woman suffered a low back injury when she slipped and fell on the hot chips. The court found that the hot chip had remained on the floor for longer than 20 minutes. A reasonable system of inspection and cleaning in the circumstances of the Woolworths store should have picked up the spilt hot chips within approximately 15 minutes and Woolworths was therefore considered negligent because a reasonable system of inspection of the floor should have occurred every 15 minutes. The failure to do this was considered negligent.