FRANKLINS SELFSERVE PTY LTD v YEHIA (BY HIS NEXT FRIEND YEHIA) [1996] NSWCA 191

FRANKLINS SELFSERVE PTY LTD v YEHIA (BY HIS NEXT FRIEND YEHIA)

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE, MEAGHER and COLE JJA 3 July 1996, 3 July 1996 [1996] NSWCA 191

NEGLIGENCE — ACCIDENT IN SUPERMARKET — WHETHER EVENTS WERE REASONABLY FORESEEABLE — EVIDENCE OF CAUSAL LINK

Clarke JA This is an appeal from a Judgment of Judge Nash given on 22 March 1995 in which he found a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $23,864. The grounds of the appeal focus on the issue whether the respondent should have recovered a judgment at all.

The facts are within a short compass. On 6 November 1987, the respondent, then aged seven, was taken by his mother to the appellant's supermarket at Lakemba. While shopping in the supermarket, he fell to the ground in circumstances upon which I will elaborate, and so did a shopping trolley, which his mother had been loading with purchases. According to the evidence, the respondent fell first, and the trolley fell on him. The handle struck his nose and caused him an injury to his nose and face.

He asserted that the appellant was negligent, in particular in failing to ensure that the aisles were free of unopened boxes so that trolleys were able to pass freely up and down the aisle. It was his case that the impediments caused by the boxes created a dangerous situation as a result of which he was injured.

In the course of his evidence, the appellant said that he had gone with his mother to the shop, and that there were a large number of boxes stacked in the aisles. He said that there were also a lot of people in the shop, and that it was difficult to move freely along the aisles particularly because of the obstruction caused by the boxes.

At one stage, his mother stopped the trolley in the last aisle, and he was standing near the handle of the trolley holding it and waiting for his mother to return from another section of the store.