Patron injured in pub prank fails in $224,000 damages claim

A pub patron who alleged she was seriously injured after being tripped by a serial prankster has failed to convince the Supreme Court of WA that the publican was liable for her injuries.

The District Court of WA ruled in June last year that Darkan Hotel, located in Darkan in WA’s Wheatbelt region, could not have foreseen the incident in which the patron was allegedly tripped by another patron from behind, even though the prankster had a reputation for similar behaviour.

The injured patron claimed the publicans had failed to take any steps to address the risk of injury arising from his conduct at the venue.

As a result of the incident the patron claimed to have suffered injury to her lumbar spine, aggravation of pre-existing problems to the right shoulder and psychological distress. She was unable to work or live independently following the incident.

But in ruling on the patron’s appeal late last month, a full bench of the Supreme Court reaffirmed the decision of the District Court, that there was no evidence that the fall was due to a trip.

Judges Newnes, Murphy and Chaney said there were “other reasonable explanations” for the patron’s fall, including that she tripped over the prankster when he “moved for some quite innocent reason”.

To conclude the patron had been tripped “would have been to depart from inference into the realm of speculation”, the Full Bench said, dismissing her appeal.

Had her appeal succeeded, the District Court had earlier assessed the patron’s damages at $224,404.80, including general and special damages, economic loss and medical expenses.

Source: Smart Licensee - 5 August 2014