Supermarket chain Asda has been forced to pay over £10,000 in personal injury compensation to a customer who was hurt after slipping on a grape in one of its stores .
Peterborough County Court ordered the retailer to pay Thomas Wardle £10,500 in damages and £18,000 in legal costs following the incident at Asda’s Rivergate branch in Peterborough at the start of 2008.
Although the exact extent of Mr Wardle’s injuries are not known, David Heming, head of personal injury at Peterborough-based HC solicitors, said an award of that size was likely to be a soft tissue injury to the victim’s back.
Asda apologised for the incident following the court ruling on Friday (June 3). In a statement, the grocery chain said: “We have thorough processes in place to ensure our store floors are kept clean to prevent anyone from slipping or falling.”
“We’re extremely sorry on this occasion we did not meet our own extremely high standards.”
Asda also confirmed that there are at least two more personal injury cases relating to the same store, which are expected to be settled in court this summer, but denied there was an issue with cleanliness at the supermarket .
All three incidents reportedly occurred in the same month (January 2008), but have only just come to light following last week’s case.
