Public Liability Recent Cases

A motel guest slipped on wet tiles in an unexpected location. The Court found the owners could have prevented the danger at low cost, but reduced damages by 20% because she failed to keep a proper lookout for the water.

Forceful, inadvertent contact from behind — a box of fruit — knocked the plaintiff to the ground in a public market, causing significant injuries. The Court found that but for the defendant's negligence, the injury would not have occurred.

An award for a fall down stairs at a short-stay rental was struck out on appeal. The Court of Appeal confirmed an occupier's duty is to take reasonable care, not to prevent all harm — the law doesn't require spending on risks that are slight, inherent and obvious, and a missing handrail doesn't itself establish causation.

A park visitor suffered a spiral leg fracture stepping into a concealed hole. The Court of Appeal held the Council could only be liable for hazards it knew or ought to have known about, and that its inspection regime was reasonable — setting aside the original award.

A duathlon competitor suffered spinal and psychological injuries in a collision with a wheelchair para-athlete. The case turned on whether the risk to participants was foreseeable and whether the event organiser's response to that risk was reasonable.

A pedestrian tripped on a steel utility pit lid in a concrete footpath. On appeal, the Court found the lid would have been obvious to a reasonable person — and where a risk is obvious, there is no duty to warn of it.

A protester was knocked to the ground, striking her head, when a police officer chased an individual through the crowd. The Court affirmed police owe a duty of care to bystanders while exercising their duties, and that the officer acted recklessly or unreasonably.

A claim that asbestos exposure occurred at a scout hall, in addition to home renovations. On circumstantial evidence, the Court was not persuaded on the balance of probabilities that the hall was the source, and the claim for contribution was dismissed.