A schoolgirl has been awarded thousands of pounds in damages from a Fife supermarket after slipping on ice and breaking her wrist.
Asda has been ordered to pay Maja Meldrum’s family £5350 after the company failed to properly clear a path at its Glenrothes store following heavy snowfall back in 2013.
Miss Meldrum, who was 13 at the time of the incident, lost her footing on compacted snow at around lunchtime on January 26 that year, and a sheriff has now ruled that Asda breached its statutory duty under the Occupiers’ Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 by failing to properly implement its gritting policy.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard how Miss Meldrum suffered a fractured left wrist and soft tissue damage to her face and knee as a result of the fall, although solicitors acting for Asda in court had alleged that she had taken a short cut and had fallen down an embankment.
Miss Meldrum’s dad Mark last night spoke of his relief of the settlement, although he stressed money was never the motivation.
“That wasn’t the intention if this had happened to an older person it could have been so different,” he explained.
“We’re lucky in a way that Maja is young, but the way it was handled was a shambles to be honest.
“They (Asda) tried to make a fool of her because she was a young lassie and tried to make it look like she had said things she never said, but I’m glad it’s over.”
The court heard how written records suggested that a senior staff member had given instructions to grit the path on the day in question, although no-one could remember if the gritting had taken place.
Another senior staff member calculated that Miss Meldrum had entered the store at 1.52pm and claimed that he had reviewed CCTV footage of the path from 1.30pm to 2.05pm to see if the incident had been captured, which it had not.
However, Sheriff James Williamson found in favour of Miss Meldrum, going on to criticise Asda for only producing CCTV footage from 1.45pm to 2.05pm only in court.
“The defender’s management team were aware from the outset that it was alleged that the injury was caused as a result of a failure on their part to implement their snow and ice policy, and yet no steps were taken to secure evidence of their actions on that day,” he concluded.
“What I do not understand is why footage from the period 12 noon to 2.30pm was not retained and lodged as a production.
“It would have put beyond question the location of Maja’s fall.
“It transpires that after the footage from 1.45pm to 2.05pm was copied and retained, the rest was ‘wiped’.
“A further peculiarity is that the CCTV from the morning would have shown the gritting taking place, yet it appears that no attempt was made to search and retain that portion of the footage.”
Innes Laing, Kirkcaldy partner of Digby Brown solicitors who represented Maja, said: “We are delighted to have secured decent compensation for Maja for the pain she suffered due to an entirely avoidable accident.”
An Asda spokesperson said last night: “We take the safety and well fair of our customers and colleagues extremely seriously, and colleagues work hard during extreme weather conditions to ensure accidents like this don’t happen.
“We’d like to again apologise to Miss Meldrum following her accident in January 2013.”