A nurse´s claim for a trip and fall accident in Tesco has been resolved at a hearing of the Circuit Civil Court with an award of €48,000 injury compensation.
The nurse – a thirty-two year old woman from Terenure in Dublin – had entered her local Tesco Metro store, and was heading for the wine section, when she tripped and fell over a six-pack of beer that had been left on the floor by a customer waiting to use the self-service check-out.
An ambulance was called and the woman taken to St James´s Hospital, where an x-ray revealed a fracture of the left knee. The woman had to undergo two surgeries and still attends the hospital for physiotherapy treatment more than 2½ after her accident.
The woman applied to the Injuries Board for an assessment of her claim for a trip and fall accident in Tesco. Consent for the assessment to go ahead was declined by the store, and the woman was issued with an authorisation to pursue her claim through the courts system.
Her case was heard last week by Mr Justice Raymond Groarke at the Circuit Civil Court. At the hearing the judge was told that Tesco denied liability for the accident because the hazard had only been present on the floor for a matter of seconds before the accident and there was nothing Tesco could have done to prevent it.
Judge Groarke also heard that the layout of the Tesco Metro store was such that customers entering the store had to navigate around other customers waiting to use the self-service checkout. The judge said that, if a better system of customer traffic control was applied, it would prevent accidents of this nature from happening.
The judge found in the woman´s favour, initially awarding her €60,000 compensation in settlement of her claim for a trip and fall accident in Tesco. However, Judge Groarke said that it was feasible that the woman was not paying full attention to her environment at the time, and reduced the settlement by 20% to account for her contributory negligence.