Court rules grocery shop owner negligent after woman cycling past hit by falling shop panel
The court rejected the grocer's arguments that the woman should not have been cycling there, that she should have worn a helmet, and that she had dislodged the panel.
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SINGAPORE: A woman who was cycling past a grocery shop in Jurong West was struck hard by a panel from behind and fell off her bicycle, hitting her head against a wall.
Madam Aminah Mohamed Kassim, who was in her mid-60s when the accident occurred in 2023, sued Loch Grocer, but its director argued that she must have dislodged the panel when cycling past it.
In a judgment published on Monday (Jun 22), District Judge Evans Ng found that the panel had fallen and struck Mdm Aminah because of the negligence of the grocer.
He said Mdm Aminah was cycling at a reasonable speed based on video footage and there was no prohibition against cycling on that path. He found the grocer to be negligent and wholly liable for the accident.
Damages will be assessed in a separate hearing.
THE CASE
Mdm Aminah was cycling from Jurong West Street 42 towards Jurong Spring Community Club in the late afternoon of Mar 15, 2023, when the incident occurred.
She said she was cycling past the front of the shop at Block 507, Jurong West Street 52, when something hard hit her on her left side, from behind.
The impact caused her to lose her balance, fall off her bicycle and hit her head against a wall, sustaining unspecified injuries.
The grocery shop was owned by Loch Grocer, whose sole shareholder and director is Mr Lee Chee Hoon.
The store has both indoor and outdoor premises, with freezer chests placed outside underneath a canopy. Translucent panels were put up to shield the freezers in the afternoon.
The rectangular panels made of polycarbonate were 2m high and 1.5m wide. There were three such panels put up on that day.
Mr Lee said the panels were "very light" and "can be picked up by a child", but the judge responded that it was "unclear what specimen of a child" he had in mind.
Estimating the thickness of each panel to be at least 3mm and using an estimated density of polycarbonate, he said each panel should weigh at least 10kg.
Judge Ng said the defendant owed a duty to take reasonable care to secure items such as the panels that are within the shop's control, so that they do not cause harm to passers-by.
The top edge of each panel is slotted into a groove in the canopy. The bottom edge is held at rest by static friction generated through contact with the ground.
The judge said this set-up failed to satisfy the required standard of care, as each panel was "always in a state of uneasy equilibrium". He noted that the set-up was chosen to suit the shop's own convenience.
While Mr Lee said that "people outside also use the same boards to shield the sun and rain", the judge noted that common practice alone does not determine whether the practice satisfies the required standard of care.
He said the set-up was inherently unstable and unreliable, as a panel was likely to fall sharply and abruptly if unintentionally dislodged.
The court scrutinised closed-circuit television video footage from a camera inside the shop that pointed outdoors.
The defendant later accepted that the video showed the panel "disappearing" from view just as Mdm Aminah cycled past.
Mdm Aminah said a strong wind could have dislodged the panel, but the judge rejected this as the outdoor fabric banners were not shown to be fluttering much at the time of the incident.
An employee in the store was deep within the indoor premises and did not see or hear the accident.
The defendant argued that the natural and probable cause of the accident was that Mdm Aminah's bicycle had dislodged the panel as she cycled past, but the judge also rejected this.
He said a metal trolley was protruding from the middle of the shopfront, and Mdm Aminah was likely to have approached the panel with a sufficient margin after clearing the trolley.
"I also find that the way in which the panel dropped out of view in the video was inconsistent with what would have happened had the front wheel or the handlebars of her bicycle hit its vertical edge," said Judge Ng.
He noted that Mr Lee was given the chance to explain what caused the panel to fall, but said he could only "guess". He also did not identify the employee who had put up the panel or get them to testify.
"This leads me to find that the panel fell and struck Mdm Aminah owing to the negligence of the defendant," said Judge Ng.
He found no contributory negligence on the part of Mdm Aminah, even though the defendant argued that she should not have cycled on the pathway or taken that route, and that she should have worn a helmet.
Judge Ng said there was no prohibition against cycling on that pathway, that Mdm Aminah was cycling at a reasonable speed and did not swerve, and that there was no legal requirement for cyclists to wear a helmet if they are not cycling on a road.
Damages will be assessed in a later hearing, along with costs.
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