“I JUST don’t know how I am feeling. I’m just stunned... numb. I guess when the money is in the bank I can relax and finally say ‘Let’s move on’.”
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Harrington woman Kathy Strong struggled to find the words as she announced the end of her eight year David and Goliath struggle against one of Australia’s largest companies.
Just a few minutes before we talked on Wednesday, Kathy had taken a call from her legal team in Sydney, with news that the High Court of Australia had found retail giant Woolworths negligent by way of having failed to remove a greasy potato chip from the floor of a Taree shopping centre.
Kathy, an amputee who walks with the aid of crutches, had slipped and fallen on the floor outside Big W at Taree City Centre in September 2004, after one of her crutches landed on a greasy chip from a nearby food court eatery. Kathy had been shopping with family and a friend, walking between racks of plants that Big W had placed outside its entry, in a ‘sidewalk sale’.
As a result of the fall, she suffered a serious spinal injury and began legal action against Woolworths, claiming the company had been negligent through its process of floor cleaning.
She won her original case and was awarded damages of over $580,000, but Woolworths appealed, and won. She and her legal team then took the case to the High Court.
Eight years after her fall, Wednesday’s phone call from her solicitor took Kathy totally by surprise at her Harrington home. Sharing the emotion was her husband Len, who has been her carer since the accident.
The High Court decision awards the original damages of $580,299 to Kathy, and on top of that will be interest, as well as an order that Woolworths Limited pays her significant legal and court costs.
The final result, according to Matthew Berenger of LHD Lawyers, will be closer to $1 million.
He too, was delighted, and said it was “a great day”.
“It was a great result for her and I am very happy for her.”