What happened

Skillset employed the apprentice and placed him at the supermarket, where its staff directed his work. A worker cleaned the room but left mince beneath the trolley. When the trolley moved, the apprentice stepped forward to catch the falling sausages and slipped.

The issues

The main issues were inadequate removal of a slippery contaminant and the apprentice's failure to check beneath the trolley. The court also considered a statutory adjustment for the absent employer's responsibility and whether the host's insurance covered its liability.

The court's decision

The breach was inadequate cleaning, rather than the mere use of a wheeled trolley. The court assessed contributory negligence at 10% and the employer-related allocation at 10%, and found that the insurer had to indemnify the host. In 2020 the Court of Appeal upheld those allocations and the coverage outcome but corrected the damages calculation.

Understanding the figures

The trial assessed AUD 714,431 before adjustments and ordered AUD 578,689.11 after successive 10% deductions. The Marketform appeal corrected the calculation, replacing both the host's damages liability and the insurer's indemnity liability with AUD 613,864.24. Those are corresponding liabilities for the same loss, not two payments to the claimant.

What this case shows

A claim against a host business can involve both ordinary negligence and statutory allocation for an employer's responsibility. A failure to clean one concealed patch differs from having no cleaning system at all. The apprentice's understandable reliance on qualified staff having cleaned the floor mattered to the allocation.

Why another case may differ

This was a claim against the host occupier, not a work injury damages claim against the employer. It concerned the Civil Liability Act, the Workers Compensation Act and the particular insurance wording for a 2012 accident. The appellate court corrected the calculation and parts of the insurance reasoning, so the trial reasons were not wholly endorsed.

Applying it to your claim

Different facts, evidence or procedures, an appeal, or a change in the law may affect how this decision applies. This is general information, not a report of a case handled by Park & Co Lawyers.

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