Woman who slipped on supermarket floor after cream spillage awarded €75,000

A woman who slipped on a floor where cream had spilled in a Dunnes Stores supermarket has been awarded €75.000 by the High Court.

Maureen Curran was injured when she had a “sudden and helpless fall” as she walked along the dairy aisle to check a product on the shelf in the Cavan town store, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said.

The judge said Ms Curran slipped on “a still wet and somewhat greasy surface”.

Ms Curran (64) fractured her right wrist in the fall five years ago and still has to wear a splint most days, she had told the High Court during the one-and-a-half day hearing.

From Tymonville Court, Tallaght, Dublin, she had sued Dunnes Stores as a result of the accident at the supermarket in Cavan Town on September 3rd, 2013. She has also sued her employer at the time, Glanbia PLC, with offices at Glanbia House, Kilkenny.

She had claimed there was an alleged failure to have an adequate cleaning system in operation at the Cavan town store at the time of the incident and there was an alleged failure to warn her of the danger posed by the spillage.

She had claimed against Glanbia that there was an alleged failure to take any or any adequate precautions for her safety while she was engaged in her work. The claims were denied.

In his judgement on Friday, Mr Justice Cross said all witnesses in the case had given truthful evidence.The accident did not occur when the floor was being cleaned by Dunnes Stores staff, he said.

He found Dunnes had failed to have warning signs to mark out the extent of the spillage and Mrs Curran saw the one warning sign which she presumed was the location of the spill and not where she slipped. The judge said the supermarket protocol also says that warning signs should be left out until the floor is dry.

Mr Justice Cross said it was vital to ensure the entire area of a floor was dry and this unfortunately was not done.

Ruling there was not any contributory negligence on the part of Ms Curran, Mr Justice Cross said she walked in an ordinary manner and she is not to be criticised for walking up the aisle as customers do. She did nothing, the judge said, that visitors to Dunnes Stores are not expected to do: walk up and down the aisle.

Ms Curran is an honest woman who did not exaggerate her injuries, he said. However, the judge found the loss of the woman’s job with Glanbia a year later was not related to her accident.

Mr Justice Cross said there was no doubt the accident had a severe effect on her.

In evidence, Ms Curran told the court at the time she was a business development manager with Glanbia and travelled around the country checking on the company’s products in supermarkets.

She said on September 3rd, 2013 at the Cavan town Dunnes Stores she was going to check on a particular product in the dairy aisle. Four or five feet from a warning sign, she said her feet went from under her.

She said she got up but it was only when she reached for her phone that she realised her hand did not work as it should.