Injury occurs in self-serve queue

Keywords

Public liability – retail store – oversized, large, bulky items

Facts

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.

Decision

Judgment for the plaintiff. Gibson DCJ, decision delivered 26 March 2024.

Ratio

The court found the defendant had failed to implement a safe system within the store for customers to purchase, transport and remove large items or bulky items.  

The defendant’s submission that the risk that a customer might overload a trolley with bulky items was “relatively insignificant” was rejected and it was determined that:

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The self-checkout area in the Kmart store was thronged with customers concerned with their own transactions, rather than the safety of others, and who were putting their goods through the scanner at a great rate but without the benefit of the expertise of a trained check-out cashier.

The possibility of items of 20 kg or more being mishandled by an untrained member of the public was not one that could or should have been treated as relatively insignificant.

While there was some evidence the defendant did have a system in place where customers could request large or bulky items be placed out in the loading dock and then delivered to them in their vehicle, the court found that the defendant had not implemented that system – it had not trained its staff in that system nor was the system advertised in store to customers.

The court found that the burden of taking precautions to avoid the risk of harm was small. All that was required was for staff to be trained to assist customers with large or heavy goods as well as notices on the wall alerting customers, particularly in areas where large or heavy items were being sold, that assistance was available.

It was found that it was not an uncommon practice for stores of this kind to have a system for collection of large items at the loading dock as well available flatbed trolleys for use by customers.