Shopper awarded $90,000 damages after slipping on grape

[Noradin]

A plaintiff's attorney would be doing his job wrong if he asked for exactly what she wanted. The goal is always to aim up and the defense will always find a way to bring it back down.

That is how it works in the US where they handle it like some negotiation where they reach a deal in the end, in other countries the judge would laugh you out of court and have you pay a fine for wasting his time.

[nextormento]

I suppose at some threshold, beyond which the victim is already compensated, the state should be the one collecting the award.

[Captain N]

We should do something with the money other than overcompensate the plaintiff though.

Is it still considered overcompensation if due to that negligence someone ends up unable to live the life they had prior to the incident?

Say the crossing gates and flashing lights don't activate at a train crossing and you have your radio up too loud to hear the train's horn. You survive the crash but lose your leg in the process. Do you think that paying you a hefty sum of money to have the required surgeries, replacement of your vehicle, and the ability to pay your bills while you're laid up in the hospital is overcompensating?

[Kathandira]

Is it still considered overcompensation if due to that negligence someone ends up unable to live the life they had prior to the incident?

Say the crossing gates and flashing lights don't activate at a train crossing and you have your radio up too loud to hear the train's horn. You survive the crash but lose your leg in the process. Do you think that paying you a hefty sum of money to have the required surgeries, replacement of your vehicle, and the ability to pay your bills while you're laid up in the hospital is overcompensating?

That can be part of the negotiation.

However, if you worked at a desk job, and lost a leg, you can still work.

So it really depends on a case by case scenario.

[Captain N]

That can be part of the negotiation.

However, if you worked at a desk job, and lost a leg, you can still work.

So it really depends on a case by case scenario.

That's why I used the life they had prior to the accident instead of their job.

A person before the accident could have been a mountain climber, or a marathon runner, or any number of things that they would have to learn to do with one leg that they were able to do with two beforehand.

A case by case basis is likely what is already in place with pain and suffering added in as well. As Winter referenced the woman still has issues walking or sitting so even with the desk job she would still be in pain and would have to get up and move around often.

[Kathandira]

That's why I used the life they had prior to the accident instead of their job.

A person before the accident could have been a mountain climber, or a marathon runner, or any number of things that they would have to learn to do with one leg that they were able to do with two beforehand.

A case by case basis is likely what is already in place with pain and suffering added in as well. As Winter referenced the woman still has issues walking or sitting so even with the desk job she would still be in pain and would have to get up and move around often.

Totally. I agree.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Weird. Why does personal responsibility fall on the person but not the company whose job is to keep the place clean and free of hazards?

You just don't understand. We should allow companies to partake in gross negligence because otherwise it's dirty socialism to expect companies to be responsible.

[Constraint]

I love how everyone's attempting to have deep, meaningful, philosophical conversations about this. Good laughs all round.

She's in a supermarket, attended by thousands of people per day. Some who may have dropped a grape on the ground. Therefore they should have warning signs visible throughout the shop, BEWARE OF GRAPES THAT MAY BE ON THE GROUND, attendants at every corner handing out well-written training brochures with succinct information on how to best avoid fallen grapes, and, of course, voice-over instructions throughout the supermarket once a minute informing all customers that there may be a fallen grape on the ground and that they shouldn't step on it under any circumstances.

Give me a fucking break, pc shit like this makes me vomit.

Watch where you're walking. Astonishingly enough, people might actually drop things accidentally. Wowww did you see that, logic!?!? Man, crazy shit.

[Captain N]

It's case by case, but I'm hardly suggesting compensation be strictly limited to that which can be readily quantified in monetary terms. In this case though, the extent of the damage seems to be someone got a booboo and is looking for a quick buck as a result.

Can you verify it's just a "Booboo" and not prolonged soft tissue damage like the article says? There's a process involved when people get hurt at work or in a place of business and sometimes are required to visit physicians suggested by the company so that the person doesn't have their own doctor writing them up a bullshit claim.

Contrary to the movie Friday people are not going out to make a quick buck in an accident. There needs to be evidence that the person's injuries were sustained in the incident on site and not elsewhere and staged.

[Hiricine]

How is it clumsiness?

Put 1000 people on the same grape or patch of ice someone sued over slipping on and I can almost guarantee that over 900 of them will never fall, and among the remaining 100 the same ones will reliably fall more often.

[Logwyn]

Sangeeta Guru was walking in the fruit and vegetable section of a Coles supermarket in Sydney west when she slipped on a grape, fell on the floor and hit her leg on a trolley.

Ms Guru was on Wednesday awarded $90,130 in damages, after a NSW District Court judge found that Coles was negligent, and failed to address the risk of harm posed by errant grapes on the floor.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/shopper-sa...14-gtay9r.html

I love this world

So person slipping gets 130 and their lawyer gets 90k? Muhahaha???!?

[Sharpbladez]

So what do you do for a living?

Im a professional slipper.

[tumppu]

If this had happened in Finland, I would've laughed, if I witnessed it. After realising they hurt themselves, I would have phoned help, but then laughed more after that.

If they tried to sue me for ... whatever ... I would have laughed even more.

Slipping on ANYTHING in a store, should first and foremost be the fault of the person who dropped the crap on the floor. Owner of the premises can't be held accountable for everything. If no drop'ee can be found, then just bill the insurance. Then get far too much fucking money anyway.

[Mehrunes]

You just don't understand. We should allow companies to partake in gross negligence because otherwise it's dirty socialism to expect companies to be responsible.

I know you're already having a glass of champagne in celebration of how cool ( even) you are, but if you bothered to actually read what @Themius tried to twist there in all his glorious illiteracy was my post about how the damages for such things should be high enough so that companies aren't in position to just shrug it off. And last time I checked (so 5 seconds ago), he hasn't edited that part of my post out and as such it was right there for you to see as well. Which makes your post the antithesis of Especially since I'm a social democrat.

[Captain N]

There is nothing in any article I can find to suggest that these are anything other than her own claims about her ongoing condition. There is not one mention of a doctor or any sort of a medical report and from the list of injuries, she seems to have hurt every imaginable body part in every imaginable way from a simple slip on her ass. It seems more like the work of someone trying to exaggerate injury by tossing in every little ache or discomfort they've had since the accident, whether or not it can be shown to have anything to do with the accident.

There's nothing in the article about a medical report but that's usually what's required when an accident happens in a place of business. They'll send the employee or the shopper to one of the Company physicians to be checked out to verify the injury wasn't done elsewhere. A simple slip can do any number of damage depending on how she fell and if she hit anything while falling. Several years back we had a Yardmaster here get out of his car, step on an 8 oz water bottle someone decided to put the cap back on, and hurt his knee so badly he needed to have it reconstructed.

Is it possible she's exaggerating her injuries? Of course...but the same chance also exists she's being truthful and the Company's own doctors verified the severity of the injuries before she went seeking a civil case against the store.

[Anastacy]

If this had happened in Finland, I would've laughed, if I witnessed it. After realising they hurt themselves, I would have phoned help, but then laughed more after that.

If they tried to sue me for ... whatever ... I would have laughed even more.

Slipping on ANYTHING in a store, should first and foremost be the fault of the person who dropped the crap on the floor. Owner of the premises can't be held accountable for everything. If no drop'ee can be found, then just bill the insurance. Then get far too much fucking money anyway.

While working as a teenager in a grocery store, we had a hurricane hit the area (Ivan; power-outages for 2+ weeks in some areas). We opened our store (with power having been out for at least a few days already, mind you) because we were the only store available within a fairly large radius, and people needed supplies.

Refrigeration units had thawed out, so there was water in various spots throughout the floor. The store was also poorly lit, only having windows at the front entrances. Despite having a few associates escorting customers to the worst parts of the store, a young man slipped and fell in a wet spot. Immediately some woman starts yelling "You can sue, you can sue!" I busted out laughing because of her, but the man thought I was laughing at him falling.

Should we have been open? Probably not, considering the risk. Could a person observe the situation and probably guess that they shouldn't walk in with flip-flops and not pay attention to where they were going? Definitely.

My store manager made us close right after the incident.

[Mehrunes]

Could a person observe the situation and probably guess that they shouldn't walk in with flip-flops and not pay attention to where they were going? Definitely.

This amount of victim blaming and red scare propaganda is almost scary.

[Anastacy]

This amount of victim blaming and red scare propaganda is almost scary.

Wait, I'm endorsing communism because I believe people should be aware of their surroundings (dimly lit, 20,000-ish square foot store, without power, aware that we are escorting customers as we are available, and a stench from food thawing out, right after a hurricane and nobody in a 50-mile radius has power)?

Yeesh. Your world is scarier than mine.

[BananaHandsB]

Interesting case. Imo expecting a supermarket to be able to immediately clean up every single grape that falls to the floor (among all the other food in the supermarket) is as "unreasonable" an expectation as it is for Ms. Guru to be constantly watching the floor, as the judge claims. For all we know that grape could have fallen 2 seconds before Ms. Guru slipped on it. If the supermarket could prove they put reasonable effort into cleaning, then I think there is no one is at fault here. It's a freak incident with an unlucky victim, much like getting struck by lightning. BUT since that employee openly claimed she had neglected cleaning the area as she was on her tea break, he/she pretty much instantly took on the liability and the store can really no longer claim they were making the proper efforts to keep the area safe. Makes sense she won, but didn't get the 1 mill+ she was after.

[Glorious Leader]

If civil suits don't hurt then negligence becomes an acceptable cost of business.

I find it disturbing that people, individuals would rather side with some faceless conglomerate against other people. Solidarity with a business. Its bizarre.