Case Studies
Win in NSW District Court over supermarket injury
Andreou v Woolworths [2013] NSWDC 83
Ms Andreou was walking in a supermarket at the time of a freak storm. Unfortunately, a significant stream of water started to pour through a hole in the roof. Ms Andreou turned to walk away from the leak and fell, sustaining injury.
The matter was heard before Judge Levy in the District Court. The plaintiff’s solicitors, aggressively, wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our strategy was to run the liability argument on the basis that breach would not be established, as it could not be reasonably foreseeable for Woolworths to anticipate the water pouring through the ceiling.
His Honour completely rejected the plaintiff’s case and held that there was nothing Woolworths could have reasonably done to prevent this incident and went so far as to say that the plaintiff did not establish that the water pouring through the roof could not be regarded as “not insignificant”. His Honour said that this was an unfortunate accident and found in favour of Woolworths.
Woolworths paid nothing and received an order for costs. An appeal was filed but later dropped.
