Pharmacy liable for woman’s injury

Picture: MORGUEFILE

THE Vincent Family Pharmacy in East London has been found liable for the injury of a 67-year-old woman who slipped and fell on its freshly washed wet floor.

Margaret Louise Ascani is suing the pharmacy, located in the Vincent Park Shopping Mall, for R1.1-million after she slipped on the floor and broke her hip in May 2011.

The high court sitting in East London found that a pharmacy had a greater duty of care to its customers because, by the nature of its business, it attracted more vulnerable people than a supermarket.

Ascani claims the freshly cleaned floor had been wet and had caused her to slip in one of the aisles in the pharmacy and injure herself.

An ambulance had been called and she had been taken to hospital.

While the pharmacy admitted the floor had been recently cleaned, it denied it was wet.

But Judge Nambitha Dambuza found that the floor had been wet and the pharmacy should have foreseen that the washing of the floor during business hours could result in an injury to customers.

It should have taken reasonable and necessary precautionary steps to warn members of the public of the possible danger.

She said the pharmacys stated practice of moving a warning sign from aisle to aisle as they proceeded with the cleaning, was not an adequate warning to customers of possible danger from the recently washed floor.

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Pharmacy liable for woman’s injury