Slipping Accident at Council run Community CentreSettlement agreed for volunteer worker
Eleanor O’Brien*
Miss Eleanor O’Brien was a retired lady who had devoted her retirement to volunteer work at a toddlers’ nursery on council-run premises. One day whilst walking across a freshly polished floor, which had not been protected by warning signs, she slipped and suffered a fracture to the thigh bone.
Miss O’Brien instructed Levenes to pursue a claim on her behalf, and medical evidence was obtained and proceedings issued. At first the defendants adopted the position that there had been warning cones out, and hence the accident was Miss O’Brien’s own fault, but Levenes obtained witness statements from co-workers to confirm that there were none. Even so, the defendants insisted that Miss O’Brien was partially to blame for her accident in that she should have known or appreciated that cleaners were operating in the vicinity and the floor was polished regularly.
Further evidence was obtained to show that there was no cleaning rota as such or any regular system of cleaning different parts of the building, and that consequently Miss O’Brien could not have known simply from the presence of cleaners that the floor in question was slippery.
Shortly before trial the defendants conceded Miss O’Brien’s claim in full and she received £18,500 in settlement and her legal costs on top.
This case illustrates how often Defendants put forward arguments to try to avoid or limit their liablity but those arguments are often weak. It is pleasing when the hard work of gathering the evidence in support of our clients cases pays off when the Defendant's arguments fade away. In this case, the statements we obtained enabled our client to stick to her guns so that she did not have to go to court to prove her case.
*name changed to protect identity
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