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Club Ordered To Pay Member $170K Compensation for Slippery

Case Overview
  • One evening as our client was leaving the club, she had to cross a painted pedestrian crossing area to get to her car.
  • She lost her balance and fell onto the unyielding service of the pavement carpark and suffered a serious injury.
  • GMP helped her get $170,000 in compensation for her permanent injuries arising from her slip and fall at the defendant’s premises.

Our client is a member of a club in the southwest of the Sydney business district. She attended with her family in the evening. She had to park at the top level of the car park. As she was leaving the club in the evening and went back to the car park, she used the lift and had to walk across a painted pedestrian crossing area to her vehicle. It had been raining heavily at the time. Her foot landed on one of the painted pedestrian crossing lines and without warning slipped on the painted surface. As a result of the slip, she lost her balance and fell onto the unyielding service of the pavement carpark and suffered serious injury.

Our client reported the injury to the club and they made an incident report of the matter. Our client attended to her doctor who referred her to have x-rays and tests in relation to her injuries. She suffered injury to her right shoulder, neck and lower back. She was referred for further investigations and injection into her right shoulder as she landed on the right side of her body when she slipped and fell.

“Due to the tear in the right shoulder, she was referred to an orthopaedic shoulder specialist further investigation. She was advised to continue with her treatment and she continued to experience right shoulder and neck immobility.”


Nassir Bechara
Our Approach

The claim was made on the club who denied liability in the matter. We commenced court proceedings against the club and requested for a view to be undertaken by a liability safety expert. Our liability safety expert undertook a view of the defendant’s premises and he determined from his tests that the painted surface was smooth and did not have any safety granules or safety grit installed within the paint. The pendulum testing highlights that the surface fails the Australian standards for slip resistance when wet and was classified as being in a high category of being slippery when wet. The area was a car park which was exposed to wet weather and would also have other potential lubricants from vehicles such as oils. The defendant was the owner and controller of the property and therefore must maintain a safe surface for access and egress for visitors in accordance with the work health and safety regulations. It was determined that if they defendant had carried out a risk assessment of the car park and regular and routine maintenance of the car park it would have been foreseeable that the surface of the painted pedestrian crossing was smooth and required a textured surface. The defendant did not serve any liability expert report in reply to our liability and safety expert in the matter.

We arranged for a client to be independently medically examined an assessed. It was determined by the doctors that she had suffered permanent injuries from her fall as a result of the accident. The specialist determined that she had 15% permanent impairment of the neck, 20% permanent loss of use of her right shoulder and 30% in payment of her lower back. Her injuries and permanent disabilities caused her to suffer a reduced capacity to participate in normal social, domestic, recreational, sporting and employment activities. They defendant arranged for her to be independently medically examined and assessed and its medical expert evidence determined that she did suffer a serious injury and was suffering ongoing symptoms an impairment as a result of her accident.

The court listed for hearing and ordered that the parties are to arrange for a mediation hearing in the matter prior to the court hearing.

If you suffer an injury as a result of being on another person’s premises and your injuries are due to their negligence, then you may be entitled to receive award damages in compensation as a result your injuries suffered from the accident due to their negligence. It is a fundamental requirement that you establish negligence against the other party to succeed in your claim.

Our client was a lawful entrant and member at the club when she slipped and fell and suffered her serious injury. The defendant as the owner an occupier of the car park had a duty of care to our client to ensure that the car park was safe for use by its members and that they would not be exposed to a risk of injury which could have been avoided by reasonable care including carrying out  adequate risk assessments in accordance with the occupational health and safety regulations. They had failed to do so and as such our client was awarded a substantial award in damages for compensation in the amount of $170,000 as a result of the defendant’s negligence and our clients subsequent injuries.

For a free no obligation consultation please contact our Toll-free number on 1800959280 so that an appointment can be arranged to attend our office to protect your legal rights arising from your accident.

The Result

At the mediation hearing the liability and medical issues were discussed and determined and the defendant was ordered to pay our client $170,000 in compensation for her permanent injuries, losses and damages arising from her slip and fall at the defendant’s premises.

Nassir Bechara

Special Counsel
I strongly recommend Gerard Malouf & Partners for their dedicated client service and expertise. Nassir Bechara particularly supported my claim process with sound advice and compassion. In such a challenging legal process I entrusted him with looking after my best interests and he and his team exceeded well beyond my expectations. Nassir did more than follow a process.
Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

Public liability refers to the responsibilities owners or occupants of a public space have to protect anyone who enters. If the owners or occupants fall short of these responsibilities, resulting in an injury, a case for compensation can be made.

Some of the most common incidents covered by public liability law include:

  • The food or drink from a restaurant makes you sick: The most common example of this type of public liability is food poisoning, however improperly disclosed allergens could also lead to litigation.
  • A slip and fall accident caused by negligence: Slip and fall incidents are especially common in busy public places such as playgrounds, schools, shopping centres, common walkways in buildings and outdoor event venues. They can result from negligent behaviour if poorly lit, uneven, unmarked or slippery surfaces are involved, amongst other reasons.
  • Injury caused by poor workmanship: If a product used by a space fails mechanically and causes an injury, a public liability claim can often be made. Examples include exploding gas bottles, poorly constructed furnishings and inadequate building structures. These cases may also be eligible for product liability litigation, if you decide to pursue both the property owner and the product manufacturer.
  • An attack by an animal while in a space: If the owners or occupants of a space fail to keep an animal, whether domestic or wild, contained as a result of negligence, you may have a potential case.

Following an initial meeting, the first task will be to establish the general facts of the case. This will include your medical diagnosis, which will need to be confirmed and documented by a doctor; and proof that the person or company at fault owed you a duty of care, which will need to be demonstrated. Together, this will show that your injury occurred when they breached that duty of care.

From there a further investigation will proceed—contacting and interviewing witnesses, speaking with expert consultants, and more—all in order to bolster the strength of your case even further. Only once this process is complete, and your claim can be demonstrated and proven in full, will the process move on to the next step.

Public liability claims enable you to recoup the financial and emotional costs of suffering an injury due to someone else’s negligence. Defendants regularly offer monetary settlements to claimants, particularly if they acknowledge liability and believe they would lose in court.

But should you accept the settlement or proceed to the later stages of litigation instead, where a judge will have the final decision? Every case is different, but here are some of the factors you may wish to consider before making your choice:

  1. The size of the settlement
  2. The strength of your case
  3. Your patience levels
  4. Your lawyer’s advice
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Gerard Malouf & Partners have provided friendly, experienced legal advice to communities across Australia for over 35 years. Our Personal Injury Lawyers have taken on ten’s of thousands of cases and we are proud to have won billions of dollars for our clients.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.

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