Korda v Aldi Foods Pty Ltd

The Court of Appeal of New South Wales, comprising Burns, Mossop and Bromwich JJ, considered an appeal concerning a claim in negligence. The appellant, a shopper, alleged that Aldi Foods Pty Ltd, the occupier of a supermarket, failed to take reasonable care for her safety. The shopper sustained injuries when she pushed her trolley into a gate designed to open automatically, but which did not do so on that occasion. She contended that the supermarket should have warned entrants that the automatic gate might malfunction.

The central legal issue before the court was whether Aldi Foods breached its duty of care to the shopper by failing to warn of the potential for the automatic gate to fail to open. This involved determining whether, in the circumstances, the risk of the gate failing and causing injury was foreseeable and, if so, whether the occupier ought to have taken precautions against that risk. A further issue was whether, even if a breach of duty occurred, that breach caused the shopper's injuries.

The court reasoned that for a duty to warn to arise, the risk of harm must be reasonably foreseeable. In this instance, there was no evidence of prior malfunctions of the automatic gate or any other incidents suggesting a propensity for failure. The court found that the risk of the gate failing to open and causing injury was not reasonably foreseeable to Aldi Foods. Consequently, there was no obligation to provide a warning. Furthermore, even if a warning had been given, the court considered it unlikely that it would have altered the shopper's conduct in pushing her trolley into the gate, meaning causation of the injury by any alleged breach was not established.

The appeals against the orders of Robinson AJ were dismissed, and the appellant was ordered to pay the respondent’s costs of those appeals.