A Canberra woman who slipped on a grape in a supermarket and injured her leg has been awarded more than $27,000 in compensation by the ACT Court of Appeal.
The accident happened in 2017, as the woman was walking past the fresh meat display in the Woden Coles store.
Her initial bid for compensation in the ACT Supreme Court failed, with the judge ruling that while the woman was injured by slipping on the grape, the supermarket had not breached its duty of care to her.
During the case, shop employees gave evidence that grapes were the most common item that customers would slip on.
The court also heard customers would take grapes from the produce section and drop them while eating them as they walked around the store or fed them to their children.
A key issue in the case was the arrangement for clearing hazards.
The court heard the cleaners cleaned the shop after closing, but during the day staff were expected to identify any hazards as they moved around.
'A system of dedicated inspection would have detected a grape'
In the initial findings this was deemed adequate and not a breach of duty of care, but the Court of Appeal disagreed.
"That system carried with it the likelihood that spills and items on the floor would be missed because there was no dedicated attention paid to that issue at any particular time," the Court of Appeal said.
"It inevitably subordinated the detection of spills and hazardous items to the performance of the staff members' other duties."
The court also had to determine if the supermarket had a liability for the breach.
The Court of Appeal found there was no evidence about the effectiveness of the practice in place.
"A system of dedicated inspection would have detected a grape or other spill or slip hazard in the area," the judgement said.
"Thus, if a reasonable system would have included hourly (or more frequent) inspection, the probability is that such a system would have prevented the harm that occurred."
The court has awarded the woman $27,309, which covers general damages, domestic assistance and out-of-pocket expenses.
