A patron of a popular Grabouw farmstall will be compensated after she suffered a fall at the stall’s wooden walkway in 2019. Picture: File
A patron of a popular Grabouw farmstall will be compensated after she suffered a fall at the stall’s wooden walkway in 2019.
The 72-year-old pensioner will now be paid damages after she slipped and fell on a wet and slippery wooden walkway at the open-air retail and dining operation, combining elements of a farm stall with a broader shopping experience.
According to the woman, who had navigated between the premises which hosts various shops housed in pop-up containers with wooden decking connecting the retail spaces, she came upon a stack of crates protruding from the front of the container, and had to swerve to avoid them.
“As she did so, her feet slipped on what she describes as a wet, dirty, and slippery wooden deck. She fell heavily onto her right side and sustained a compound fracture of her femur and other injuries.
“The plaintiff further pleaded, in her particulars of claim, that the defendant was negligent by allowing the deck to remain wet and slippery without adequate warning or attempts to prevent the incident from occurring,” the Western Cape High Court judgment noted.
Judge Adrian Montzinger found in the pensioner’s favour after it was found that wet floor signage was not placed on the open-air deck where the woman fell.
“The crates placed near the front of the shop introduced an additional hazard, forcing the plaintiff to have to step to the side or swerve. This situation in combination with a slippery floor, created a clear risk of a slip-and-fall and was negligent.
“On balance, I find that the plaintiff’s fall was caused by her feet slipping on a wet and slippery spot on the deck as she attempted to sidestep the crates in front of the shop. There is no persuasive evidence that she simply ‘tripped’ over her own feet…
“The defendant also argued that the plaintiff contributed to her own fall by failing to keep a proper lookout and wearing smooth-soled shoes. However, the evidence was clear that the plaintiff walked slowly and was entitled, in law, to pay greater attention to the displayed goods than to her every footstep.
“Customers do not proceed with their ‘eyes glued to the ground’. The crates were placed in such a way that they came into view suddenly, triggering her swerve,” said Montzinger.
Meanwhile, in Cape Town, the same court found against a woman who claimed delictual damages against the City of Cape Town when she had tripped and fell over uneven paving on a municipal sidewalk.
The woman claimed she had fallen during October 2017 while taking her tourist friend sightseeing.
She sustained injuries to her knee due to a fall caused by her tripping on the uneven surface of the sidewalk along Victoria Road in Camps Bay, Cape Town.
The city disputed that its employees acted negligently after the woman subsequently learned that the injury caused her to sustain a comminuted patella fracture to her left knee.
Montzinger said: “Had the city received a complaint or discovered a plainly dangerous defect prior to the plaintiff’s fall and failed to rectify it, the situation would have been different.
“But here, the plaintiff did not prove the existence of a mechanism by which the city could have known or lead evidence to convince me that the city could have implemented other measures beyond universal, constant sidewalk checks.”
chevon.booysen@inl.co.za
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