Argo Managing Agency Ltd v Al Kammessy

[2018] NSWCA 176

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Torts
2. › Negligence
3. › Occupier's liability
4. › Slip and fall
5. › Cleaning contractor's duty of care to patrons
6. › Whether cleaner exercising reasonable care should have detected wet patch on terrazzo floor
7. › Whether failure to detect hazard constituted breach of duty
8. › Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW), s 5B
1. Torts
2. › Negligence
3. › Scope of duty of care
4. › Relevance of contractual terms to duty owed to third parties
5. › Whether cleaning contract determined or informed scope of duty of care to patrons
1. Evidence
2. › CCTV footage
3. › Ability of appellate court to draw inferences from CCTV footage
4. › Limitations of CCTV evidence
5. › Whether appellate court in as good a position as trial judge to assess CCTV footage
1. Torts
2. › Negligence
3. › Causation
4. › Probability theory
5. › Whether wet patch present when cleaner passed area
6. › Application of probability analysis to undifferentiated time period

Quick Take

A cleaning contractor's duty to shopping centre patrons is to exercise reasonable care to detect and remove hazards, not to guarantee that all hazards will be removed; failure to detect a particular hazard does not of itself necessarily demonstrate breach, and the terms of the cleaning contract inform but do not determine the scope of the common law duty.