Jemma Barnard

Public liability – retail store – oversized, large, bulky items The plaintiff brought a claim for personal injuries suffered in a Kmart store in Woy Woy. The plaintiff was waiting in the “self-serve” checkout queue when a customer in another queue behind her, whose purchases were two mountain bikes, let go of his trolley while trying to manoeuvre these large items in the trolley through the checkout. The larger of the two bikes fell onto the plaintiff, striking her back. Judgment for the plaintiff.

The plaintiff commenced a claim against the defendant for common law damages. In pre-litigation stage, the plaintiff described the injury as arising on a specific day, 26 November 2020 – his Notice of Assessment reflected same. In his statement of claim he alleged the injury arose either then or because of events over a period of time leading up to that date, or a combination of both.

The appellant suffered spinal injuries as he was travelling down a busy suburban road on his motorcycle and a piece of timber fell from the back of a large utility vehicle into his path. The appellant managed to avoid the timber with his front wheel, but the back wheel ran over it. The back of the motorcycle did a ‘bunny hop’, jarring the appellant’s body and causing injury to him. At trial, neither the negligence of the unidentified driver nor the quantum of the appellant’s claim was disputed.