Shopper awarded $90,000 damages after slipping on grape

[Mormolyce]

Its a grape that could have just rolled off the table.
Nothing to do with training safety and procedures.

A kid walked by, picked a grape and one fell off. Women slipped on it. Big whoopdiedoo.

Have you ever had a job before? They have OH&S practices that cover things like that. It's someone's job. Or a whole department. It costs money.

I once got in trouble with the OH&S guys at my old workplace for having my jacket over the back of my chair. They said I could move the chair back, catch the edge of the jacket, fall over and hurt myself. Lawsuit. They were employed to ensure that kind of thing didn't happen so I was supposed to put my coat on a coat rack in a closet so nobody could trip on it. I couldn't believe my fucking ears. The coat wasn't even long enough to get caught like that. Ridiculous.

So yeah, grapes on the floor absolutely motherfucking would be the business of OH&S, and I bet Coles' OH&S guys are making a huge drama over this. That costs the business serious money, and they employ them to minimise their exposure to this kind of lawsuit, because those lawsuits can cost them a lot more.

[Deleted]

Have you ever had a job before? They have OH&S practices that cover things like that. It's someone's job. Or a whole department. It costs money.

I once got in trouble with the OH&S guys at my old workplace for having my jacket over the back of my chair. They said I could move the chair back, catch the edge of the jacket, fall over and hurt myself. Lawsuit. They were employed to ensure that kind of thing didn't happen so I was supposed to put my coat on a coat rack in a closet so nobody could trip on it. I couldn't believe my fucking ears. Ridiculous.

So yeah, grapes on the floor absolutely motherfucking would be the business of OH&S, and I bet Coles' OH&S guys are making a huge drama over this. That costs the business serious money, and they employ them to minimise their exposure to this kind of lawsuit, because those lawsuits can cost them a lot more.

I do, not in the US of A though so all this bullshit doesn't concern me.
What the hell.

[Mormolyce]

If I were the judge, I would have ruled against her, the moment she started trolling with requests like 1 million dollars.

It's just a money grab.

If you were a judge you would've been sufficiently trained to know that's not how rulings work :P

[Wikko]

Yep, that's Australia alright. A shitty $90k payout. Probably net you half a million in the US :P

- - - Updated - - -



He's quite correct. Why would a business invest in training/safety equipment/procedures etc if the cost of paying out damages was considerably cheaper?

$90k is a fart in a whirlwind to Coles.

Most countries dont pay those excessive punitive damages on cases like these and we're all still alive. In addition we dont have people who slip up on purpose and hurt themselves to make money

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Ideally, civil suits should result in the defendant paying for the plaintiff's direct ailments of the torte. Problem is when they start claiming emotional distress, etc.

However, the $90,000 rewarded is usually proportionally reduced based on the responsibility of each party contributing to the action. If the grape-slipper was 40% responsible for not watching where she was going, then she is awarded 60%. So she will probably see $54,000.

In her position I would be pretty pissed if I broke my back because some employee was off taking a tea break and Coles wouldn't fix their damn grape aisle. But, headline is funny so lets all thrash her. Instead of paying for her medical bills she can have the General Liability insurance of that location pay for it.

Also, She'll probably have to hand over 30% to her lawyer.

[GreenJesus]

If I were the judge, I would have ruled against her, the moment she started trolling with requests like 1 million dollars.

It's just a money grab.

Listen. I am all for personal responsibility, but we don't even know the full story. For all we know she could actually be in a lot of pain and has had multiple doctors visits and MRIs. Doesn't matter what you trip on, a fall can be dangerous.

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.

I was the same way as you until I took Business Law. In fact my final for it is tomorrow and I am waisting time here.. ugh..

[Azadina]

If you were a judge you would've been sufficiently trained to know that's not how rulings work :P

I would tell you that "I AM THE LAW!" and then tell you to pay the court bills

[Mizix]

However, the $90,000 rewarded is usually proportionally reduced based on the responsibility of each party contributing to the action. If the grape-slipper was 40% responsible for not watching where she was going, then she is awarded 60%. So she will probably see $54,000.

Looks like she was not considered responsible (for not watching where she was walking) so she'll touch all of the 90k. It is worth noting though that she asked for 1 million in damages and only got a fraction of that and she actually was injured so it seems pretty fair all in all, despite the headline.

[Rotted]

If I were the judge, I would have ruled against her, the moment she started trolling with requests like 1 million dollars.

It's just a money grab.

Thing is technically she has a case, and if he threw her out for that, theres a good chance she'd rebound by sueing the system for unfair dismissal or some shit. Also, judges are probably used to seeing this shot all the time.

Honestly, the thing that surprised me the most about this, is that it happened in Austraila, although 90k is a ridiculous amount.

Slighty offtopic, usually public business have a compensation policy if anything happens to a customer or even staff, they get offered x amount to settle before the event has even fully registered in the persons head. Which I think is a fair system, people get a fair pay out, company keeps face and keeps the incident low key, but this story reminds me of two incidents Ive witnessed.

A) I was working in the local zoo for a temp placement, one of my duties was doing the bird show ever other day. The first thing we say on the Monday and Friday shows when the raven comes out. Do not have food out or ANYTHING shiny. He loves shiny shit and will come over to you. Thing is, we can only advise not enforce. So we start this show, I clock this family taking out a sandwhich out of foil. At this point its to late, 100 odd people have come to see it, and they've been warned. 2 Minutes later the raven is out, see's the sandwhich and foil in this toddlers hand (about a 4 year old sitting in a pram) decides to go over and say hi. He lands gently, and I mean gently the kid didn't flinch, but lands on the kids head, jumps down on to his lap, pick up the foil, jumps to the floor, flies back to his shed. Then ofc the tears start as lets be fair, a raven to a four year old flying and landing on you, is a big fucking bird. Parents complain, they go to head keeper, father goes ape shit saying hes raised birds of prey all of his life and its completely not safe to have a raven out at a display - Headkeeper just sighs, writes a cheque for 2k, and they leave with a smile on their face.

B) I was shopping in our local supermarket, lad is working restocking, nearly closing time, I go to the next isle next thing I hear is " FUCKING DAN YOU FUCKING CUNT *Unaudiable bit* TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF" After the swearing I dashed around to see what was happening, saw this guy chest and head down the back of a freezer legs up in the air. I assumed he was trap so I ran to the other isle to pull a freezer out to release him. By the time he was shouting turn it off, luckily I clicked what was going on. Ran back to him, at this point a woman and a staff member were about to to pull him loose, managed to stop them in time, the guys still screaming, staff are in shock ( on duty were 16/18) - as its a small shop and its our local I know roughly where the electric box was and threw the trip switches. First staff reaction? betta get the accident book and fill it in, I'm like PHONE THE DAMMED AMBULANCE his hand was a mix of melted or black flesh. the best bit about this story? the electric shock didn't come from the freezer, it came from the metal shelving, there was a wire exposed and it touched the shelfs, electrifying the entire aisle, no idea how no one was hurt during the day. Also, apparently theyve known about this wire for 5 months and not done anything. Now supermarket has a interesting policy I was told that night. First, either a manager or a supervisor or someone specific has to be there all the time during opening hours and not supposed to have minors there on their own, there was also a few maintenance policys not in force (obviously). Luckily this guy only had scaring, for how long and how high the voltage was seeping through his hand, I was shocked he didn't have nerve damage. Anyways, he got a lump sum on 25k no questions asked, I'd say he was entitled to more, but he accepted accidents happen, he was more than happy with the pay out, fully paid 3 weeks off to recover I believe (IIRC he fucked off for 2 weeks out somewhere exotic ) and he retained his job. Never crossed his mind to sue em,

TLR Story 1 - Raven V Child, Money grabbing bastards Story 2 - Supermarket Freezer V Staff, pretty decent staff member

[Mehrunes]

How dafuq does one even slip on a single grape. Was it fossilized or something? Because grapes are squishy as hell.

Have you ever had a job before? They have OH&S practices that cover things like that. It's someone's job. Or a whole department. It costs money.

I once got in trouble with the OH&S guys at my old workplace for having my jacket over the back of my chair. They said I could move the chair back, catch the edge of the jacket, fall over and hurt myself. Lawsuit. They were employed to ensure that kind of thing didn't happen so I was supposed to put my coat on a coat rack in a closet so nobody could trip on it. I couldn't believe my fucking ears. The coat wasn't even long enough to get caught like that. Ridiculous.

So yeah, grapes on the floor absolutely motherfucking would be the business of OH&S, and I bet Coles' OH&S guys are making a huge drama over this. That costs the business serious money, and they employ them to minimise their exposure to this kind of lawsuit, because those lawsuits can cost them a lot more.

Unless Coles is an atypical shop and loves to employ tons of people instead of understaffing, OSH employees can't be everywhere at once and the shoppers should entertain their sense of sight and watch where they're going (unless she's blind, in which sorry for being an ableist shitlord, but I've seen no mention of that). I mean, I agree with Wells to a degree, negligence should be punished sufficiently for companies not to shrug at it, but it should also be proportional. Which doesn't appear to be the case in anglosphere countries all that much (then again maybe they make more sense in context of their bloated medical costs, I'm not sure how similar to US Australia is in this department).

Listen. I am all for personal responsibility, but we don't even know the full story. For all we know she could actually be in a lot of pain and has had multiple doctors visits and MRIs. Doesn't matter what you trip on, a fall can be dangerous.

Your "but" is rather weak. The fact that falls can be dangerous is inconsequential to the concept of personal responsibility. If anything, it's another argument in favor of it.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Only $90k? Ha, what a nub! Here in Miami people get a quarter of a million for less than that. I have a relative who made $1m after she slipped on a puddle of water in the entrance of a super market(don't remember which one).

[Mormolyce]

Most countries dont pay those excessive punitive damages on cases like these and we're all still alive. In addition we dont have people who slip up on purpose and hurt themselves to make money

Wait, $90k excessive? I don't think so. It's pretty piss poor really.

[PACOX]

Yall laughing but busting your ass on something slippery can be no joke. Its funny because it was a little ass grab and she didn't die but slip and falls CAN FUCK U UP!

I've had a client slip on some water, 5 staples on the bottom of his chin, fractured eye socket, bruised hip, and stitches along his brow.

My grandma bruised up the entire right side of her body and had to walk with a cane for weeks slipping on water in a store.

[Radio]

My stepmother died from falling 10-20cm off the ground. Businesses gotta check their floors.

[Deleted]

Reminds me of someone that got sued because someone tripped over a paving stone in front of their house.

[Soikona]

America is spreading.

Please no! It's bad enough having teenagers that watch American TV screaming "I know my rights!!"

[Independent voter]

America is spreading.

Yeah, my first thought was "must be a US article", then I saw it was in Australia and I was surprised.

[ParanoiD84]

Ridiculous, could just have given her/him a box of grapes and be done with it.

[AeneasBK]

How dafuq does one even slip on a single grape. Was it fossilized or something? Because grapes are squishy as hell.

I don't know if things have changed but slips on grapes I thought were the no.1 cause of slips in supermarkets. It's basically a little parcel containing water and a slippery husk. On laminate flooring; heel pops it when you're taking a stride looking at one of those massive clourful signs saying "TWO FOR ONE ON ALL DENTAL PRODUCTS!!!!" and phwoooom your leg slides out in front of you you pull a muscle and bang your head on the floor.

[Themius]

How dafuq does one even slip on a single grape. Was it fossilized or something? Because grapes are squishy as hell.




Unless Coles is an atypical shop and loves to employ tons of people instead of understaffing, OSH employees can't be everywhere at once and the shoppers should entertain their sense of sight and watch where they're going (unless she's blind, in which sorry for being an ableist shitlord, but I've seen no mention of that). I mean, I agree with Wells to a degree, negligence should be punished sufficiently for companies not to shrug at it, but it should also be proportional. Which doesn't appear to be the case in anglosphere countries all that much (then again maybe they make more sense in context of their bloated medical costs, I'm not sure how similar to US Australia is in this department).




Your "but" is rather weak. The fact that falls can be dangerous is inconsequential to the concept of personal responsibility. If anything, it's another argument in favor of it.

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?

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, my first thought was "must be a US article", then I saw it was in Australia and I was surprised.

You were surprised Australia had laws? What happens if a supermarket doesn't clean up soap (well it's a soap aisle personal responsibility!) l