In this Alert, Senior Associate Brooke Jacobs and Solicitor
Elizabeth Harvey examine the recent decision of Woolworths Ltd
v Ryder [2014] NSWCA 223, in which the New South Wales Court
of Appeal found that a supermarket in a shopping centre did not owe
a duty of care to users of the common area adjacent to their
premises, in circumstances where the relevant hazard had been
created by a product purchased from and opened in the
supermarket.
Facts
The plaintiff sustained injury when she slipped on a patch of
soapy liquid and fell while in the common area of a shopping
centre, just outside a Woolworths supermarket.
The soapy liquid had been spilt by a little girl blowing bubbles
with a wand. Her parents had only moments before purchased the
bottle of bubbles. It was alleged that a Woolworths cash register
operator had opened the bottle of bubble mixture for the little
girl.
