Retail & Leisure (Retail)

Issue / Claim: The claimant sued for damages following an accident at the checkout. She was paying for her purchases when a two-litre bottle of mineral water placed on the conveyor belt by the customer immediately behind fell from the conveyor belt and struck her lower leg. 

Weightmans’ investigation and action: At the original trial, the judge found that the upright bottle of water fell as the conveyor belt moved. He held that it was a foreseeable risk that a bottle of water would be unstable if put on a moving belt and it was a risk against which our client should guard. He found that it would be proper for a sign to be placed at the end of the checkout, warning customers that bottles should be placed on their side.

We argued that customers would continue to stand bottles upright on conveyor belts even if a notice asking them to place bottles on their side was in place. In addition, we provided evidence that around 20,000 bottles were sold at that branch of Waitrose per week. In a preceding 16-month period, around 1.4 million bottles had been sold at that branch and there had been only one other recorded similar incident.

The judge ruled in favour of the claimant. We therefore took the case to the Court of Appeal, where we argued that the circumstances had not given rise to a foreseeable risk of injury against which a reasonable person in our client’s position should have guarded. This was upheld, Roach L J ruling that , “The evidence indicated that the chance of a glass bottle falling was negligible. The chance of a plastic bottle falling was remote. Added to that, the chance of any injury being caused by such a fall was also remote.”

Result: Claim successfully defended. The Court of Appeal concluded that a customer would be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which they were invited there, notwithstanding that no steps have been taken to see that customers placed their bottles on their side. Furthermore, it was accepted that there was no evidence that a notice requiring customers to load bottles on their side would have reduced the risk of injury. 

This case exemplifies the importance we attach to defending claims where a finding of liability against our client would affect the industry nationwide.