Slipped on a banana in supermarket - compensation?

p1an0player

Hello,

I hope that this falls within the scope of this site, and it is in the most appropriate place.

My mum slipped on some squashed banana in a large supermarket the other day. She fell quite hard on her elbow and knee.

She didn't break anything but has since felt some aches and pains as a result of the fall, I guess as her body was jolted. It was also a little humiliating to have fallen on the floor and be unable to get up for a few moments.

The shop manager expressed sympathy and filled out an accident form.

Whilst I do question the burgeoning compensation culture, I feel very annoyed that my mum has suffered because of the shop failing to keep its floor clean.

I wonder therefore if she would be entitled to claim some compensation from the shop and if so how would she go about it.

Thanks for your thoughts

Becles

You could ask the shop if they are willing to cover any medical expenses and loss of wages for any time off work the accident caused.

Claudie

Becles wrote:

You could ask the shop if they are willing to cover any medical expenses and loss of wages for any time off work the accident caused.

I would write a nice thorough letter explaining what had happened and how your mum felt afterwards. Then as Becles suggested ask if they will cover these expenses. They may have thought all was well if they didn't hear from her.

researcher

I think she will need to see a doctor first, she has to make sure it is recorded officially that the pain she is experiencing is a direct result of her fall in the supermarket (and therefore her 'pain and suffering' was caused by the supermarkets negligence). Photographs of any bruising would also help.

If you are going down this route, you could to write to the supermarket advising them that she has had to seek medical advice as a result of the fall, and that you will be contacting them in due course. In all likely hood it will be passed to their insurers. I think it is very unlikely that they would give any compensation unless you take this official route, as admitting liability would undoubtedly be against their insurers advice.

This is only an opinion after we experienced something similar - and learnt from our mistakes!

WHA

To make it formal, you'd need to prove the supermarket was negligent, and to do that, you'd need to prove that the banana had been there a while.

You can hardly claim the supermarket was negligent if it was the lady before you that dropped it as there wouldn't have been time for them to clean it up.

From reading of similar types of case, I think you'd need -proof (witnesses) to say that it had been there long enough for the supermarket staff to be aware of it and to have cleaned it up.

As there doesn't appear to have been any serious injury and you don't appear to have been to hospital/doctor about it, I would suggest you write to the manager, outlining everything, and you may get a goodwill gesture for your pain/suffering.

Debt_Free_Chick

p1an0player wrote:

Whilst I do question the burgeoning compensation culture, I feel very annoyed that my mum has suffered because of the shop failing to keep its floor clean.

I agree with WHA ... you need to be able to prove that the "shop failed to keep its floor clean". By this, you need to demonstrate that they failed to act reasonably ... now what is reasonable? If the shop can show that they inspect the floors every hour or so, then a Court is likely to think that this is "reasonable" - after all, they can't be expected to keep an eye on every inch of floor space every minute of every day.

As WHA suggests, another customer may well have been negligent e.g. dropped the banana, saw it fall and thought "s0d it!" and just left it there :eek: If so, then this is the person you would need to pursue!

Accidents happen .. perhaps this is one to write off to experience, unless you can prove who is responsible. Sorry to appear so unhelpful, but in order to blame someone else, you need to have some evidence to back it up.

Regards

Quincy_3

I would say its just a unfortunate accident and dont sue or a price increase on shopping will occur and that will then affect me

The UK gets like the US day by day its a sue culture :mad:

Hope Mum gets better soon

wannabedebtfreebeth

If your Mum has household contents insurance then she probably has cover for legal stuff. they will advise her if she has any grounds for a claim and will be much more likely to get her a settlement if so than she would on her own. Stores seem to take solicitors much more seriously than they do members of the public! Good luck. She may not know until a few weeks hence if there will be lasting effects but she should contact the insurers now,

tomstickland

If it was me then I'd accept that I needed to look where I was going. Health and safety is fine when covering, for example, machinery that you would reasonably expect to be working correctly, but slipping on a banana I'd class as operater error.

mrcow

tomstickland wrote:

If it was me then I'd accept that I needed to look where I was going.

Have you ever seen Laurel & Hardy Those banana skins can be lethal!

I hope that your mum is okay. She should see a doctor. If she does make a claim, she'll have an independant medical anyway but injurys don't have to be permanent for a claim to be upheld, so she should see her GP to report on any problems and to advise her whether any medication is necessary.

p1an0player

Thank you all very much for your views on this.

Some adverts give the impression that it's easy to get a few grand for a slip/trip like this, but the demise of companies like The Accident Group perhaps shows things are not so easy.

Just to be clear, it wasn't a whole banana (which would have been easy to spot on the floor), but rather two or three small pieces of banana flesh which had already been squashed into the floor.

Will have to discuss all this with my mum and see how she wants to proceed.