A supermarket giant has been ordered to compensate the widow of late rugby player Chester Williams after she slipped and fell in one of its stores.
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Maria Williams visited the Pick n Pay store at N1 City Mall on 13 November 2017 with her sister. After shopping, the pair made their way to the till to pay. However, Williams realised that she had forgotten an item, and went back to get it.
According to the judgement, Williams set off ‘down aisle No. 4 to collect the item and returned to the till up a different aisle – No. 5 apparently. While walking back to the till along aisle 5, Williams slipped. Her feet shot out ahead of her and she landed on her left side. (She) was in some quite considerable discomfort and unable to get back on her feet immediately.’
IOL reports that a senior staff member at the store was the first to assist Williams when she slipped on ‘an oily substance which she thought was a reddish-orange colour’ in an aisle where pasta and sauces were on display. She was eventually helped into a wheelchair and later taken to a nearby hospital for medical attention.
According to Williams, she suffered certain orthopaedic injuries, which she received treatment for and would require continued treatment for. ‘Williams testified that (the senior staff member) and some of the other employees were most concerned that the incident would attract adverse media publicity given her quasi-celebrity status. They asked Williams not to go to the media and assured her that Pick n Pay would compensate her for her medical expenses.’
Pick n Pay allegedly did not honour this promise, and Williams issued a summons in May 2019 in which she claimed general damages for pain and suffering as well as medical expenses, both past and future, as per the judgment.
However, the retailer argued that while it had a duty of care to customers visiting its store (to ensure that it creates a safe environment for customers to shop in), it denied any liability on its part.
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As per IOL, the company pleaded that Williams fell due to her sole negligence, in that she failed to keep a proper lookout, failed to take reasonable steps to prevent her fall and failed to avoid injury to herself.
The retailer issued a third-party notice to Bluedot, a cleaning company that was contracted to the store at the time, to ask for a declaratory order that it be held liable to indemnify Pick n Pay for any damages that might be awarded against it in favour of Williams.
To this end, Judge Patrick Gamble found that Pick n Pay had not adduced sufficient evidence to rebut the prima facie case of negligence as presented by Williams.
‘The plaintiff’s fall was occasioned by the negligence of (store) employees and she is thus entitled to be fully compensated by (the company) for such damages as she may prove in the future,’ he says.
‘We are very happy with the outcome. Pick n Pay refused to accept liability and demanded that we seek to recover damages against their ‘independent’ cleaning contractor,’ says a member of Williams’ legal team. ‘What’s even more frustrating is that the amount of damages isn’t even that big –probably no more than R500 000. Because the retailer made us run a trial the legal costs are going to be higher than the damages.’
A spokesperson for Pick n Pay says the retailer respects the court’s judgement, and that its ‘insurers and legal team are handling the matter with the relevant parties’.
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