Davis v B1 Gaming Corporation

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Davis v B1 Gaming Corporation [2004] QDC 019

PARTIES:

MARY DAVIS

Plaintiff

v

B1 GAMING CORPORATION

Defendant

FILE NO/S:

D 2558/01

DIVISION:

PROCEEDING:

Trial

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court, Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

13 February 2004

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

15 May 2003

JUDGE:

McGill DCJ

ORDER:

Judgment for the defendant.

CATCHWORDS:

NEGLIGENCE – Dangerous Premises – Occupier’s Liability – fall on step – single step at entrance to building – whether sufficient visual cues for presence of step.

Cains v Mathers Shoes Pty Ltd [1993] QCA 193 – distinguished.

Howie v State of Queensland [2001] QDC 200 – distinguished.

Preusker v Conrad International Hotels [2000] QCA 3 – distinguished.

Spencer v Maryborough City Council [2002] QCA 250 – followed.

Wilkinson v Law Courts Limited [2001] NSWCA 196 – applied.

COUNSEL:

R J Lynch for the plaintiff
R M Treston for the defendant

SOLICITORS:

McInnes Wilson Lawyers for the plaintiff

Allens Arthur Robinson for the defendant

1. On 31 July 1999 at about 10.00pm the plaintiff was leaving premises occupied by the defendant when she lost her balance and fell heavily, suffering a fracture of the head of the right femur.  The plaintiff alleges that that occurred because she had failed to notice a step at the point where the foyer of the building she was leaving met the footpath, and that her failure to notice the step was due to the negligence of the defendant as occupier.  Liability and quantum are both in issue.

The fall

1. The plaintiff on the night in question was attending a wedding reception at the defendant’s premises, the Conrad International Hotel:  p.6.  She arrived at the hotel about 5.00pm, and entered the building through the George Street entrance:  p.6.  She was not particularly familiar with the building.  While at the wedding reception she did not drink any alcohol.  About 10.00pm she and her husband decided to leave;  they had to catch a ferry to return home, but said she had plenty of time so that she was not particularly rushing:  p.7.  She and her husband walked back to the George Street entrance.  She said that as she was leaving the building she missed the last step and fell flat on her face and felt the bone break:  p.7.  She said she had just been walking normally.  She was carrying a handbag and wearing shoes:  p.8.  She maintained that she did not see the step at the entrance:  p.9.

Description of the area

1. There are photographs in evidence of the entrance.[1]  The footpath outside the entrance is decorated with a checkerboard pattern diagonally to the line of the footpath, with a grey border:  Exhibit 1.  There is one low step at the point where the building meets the line of the footpath, although, as there are columns on either side of the entrance which project onto the footpath, the bases of these columns extend beyond the step, so that the step is about half a metre inside the face of the base…