A woman, who sustained a blunt closed head injury when a store sign fell from its fascia and struck her, has resolved her compensation claim for a shop sign injury after a court hearing.
The woman – identified as Ms Benham (61) – brought her claim for shop sign injury against the tReds shoe shop in Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, after the fifteen feet metal store sign fell from its fascia and hit her on the head on October 2010.
In her action against the shoe store, Ms Benham claimed that she had suffered a head injury due to the company´s failure to establish or maintain any adequate system of regular inspection or maintenance of the sign, and also allege that she had developed a temporary anxiety disorder as a result of her accident.
The store denied liability for her injuries; claiming that regular inspections of the store sign took place. However, lawyers acting on behalf of Ms Benham discovered that the sign had fallen due to the deterioration of the fascia and that the rot in the wood could not have possibly been discovered by the company´s inspection of the sign, which was conducted from ground level.
tReds continued to contest Ms Benham´s compensation claim for shop sign injury and the claim was resolved only after a hearing at Bournemouth and Poole County Court. At the hearing, Judge Maston concluded that the onus was on tReds to prove that the dangerous condition of the sign could not have been discovered by a suitable inspection.
As tReds were in control of the premises and unable to establish that the accident had happened due to anything other than the sign “owing to want of repair”, the Judge found in favour of Ms Benham and awarded her £18,000 in settlement of her compensation claim for shop sign injury.