Caftor Pty Ltd (ACN 008 598 089) t/as Mooseheads Bar and Cafe v Matthew Brenden Kook

Caftor Pty Ltd (trading as Mooseheads Bar and Cafe) appealed to the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Western Australia against a judgment of the District Court of Western Australia. The appeal concerned the liability of the appellant, as an occupier of a nightclub, for injuries sustained by the respondent, Matthew Brenden Kook, a patron who paid an entrance fee. The respondent suffered a cut to his hand after falling on a piece of glass on the dance floor of the nightclub.

The central legal issues before the Full Court were whether the appellant owed a duty of care to the respondent, the scope of that duty, and whether the appellant had breached its duty of care by failing to take reasonable steps to prevent the respondent from being injured by the presence of glass on the dance floor.

The Full Court upheld the decision of the District Court, finding that the appellant, as the occupier of the premises, owed a duty of care to its patrons, including the respondent. This duty extended to taking reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the dance floor. The Court reasoned that the presence of glass on a nightclub dance floor, particularly one where patrons were dancing and potentially barefoot, posed a foreseeable risk of injury. The appellant's failure to implement adequate procedures for regularly inspecting and cleaning the dance floor, or to otherwise mitigate the risk, constituted a breach of its duty of care. The Court applied established principles of occupiers' liability in negligence, emphasizing the need for occupiers to take reasonable precautions against foreseeable risks of harm to their invitees.

The appeal was dismissed, and the appellant was ordered to pay the respondent's costs of the appeal.