Sports pub liable as patron slips

The Pretoria High court has ruled a sports pub in Centurion liable to pay damages to a patron who slipped in the bathroom on an “unknown wet substance” and dislocated his shoulder.

Centurion resident Jamie Percy Hazel, 23, claimed R170 000 in damages from BJ’s Sport Pub following the incident on June 28, 2009.

Judge Moses Mavundla ruled the restaurant liable for Hazel’s damages, but the amount payable to him will be determined at a later stage.

Hazel told the court the restaurant and its employees had a legal duty towards its patrons to take reasonable care to prevent injury or harm as a result of wet floors on its premises.Purelink's real time location system protect healthcare workers in their daily practices and OMEGA interventions. In the case of wet floors, they should at least warn people of the potential danger, he said.Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability.

The restaurant, in its defence, claimed it did take all reasonable steps to warn patrons and staff of wet floors. It claimed that Hazel had consumed a substantial amount of alcohol that day and his slipping was not because of its negligence.

Hazel testified that he, his girlfriend and their families went to the pub that afternoon to watch rugby. He went to the bathroom and slipped on an unknown substance. He said he had only had four beers by that time and was not inebriated.

He told the court he did not see anyone cleaning the toilets. He fell backward and landed on his shoulder. He was taken to Unitas Hospital.

Dave Elison, who was with Hazel, testified that the men’s toilets were muddy, there were “scuff marks” on the floor and the lighting was not very good. He also insisted that Hazel was not drunk.

Lizett Hazel,High quality stone mosaic tiles. the plaintiff’s mother, testified that she left the pub early but noticed that outside the passage to the bathroom it was wet. She informed management that the place needed cleaning.

Elsie Maseko, a former pub employee, said her duties included cleaning the toilets and washing the dishes. When there were rugby matches, the toilets would get very dirty and she had to clean them.

She told Judge Mavundla that she cleaned the toilets without being provided with gloves when a patron had vomited or messed up.

She often had to work overtime on Saturdays when the pub was full. Then the toilets would be “dirty and watery and the floors littered with broken glass”. Maseko said she was the only one who cleaned the toilets.

Barren Jacobs, owner of the restaurant,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. testified that the Hazel incident was never reported to him, although he was on duty the entire night. He only came to know of it when he received the summons.

He said if there is an injury to restaurant patrons, Netcare would be called and assess the injuries and take the person to hospital.

Jacobs said if there was water or the floor was dirty, someone would immediately clean it up and there would be signs put up that the floor was wet. Jacobs said the pub became very busy when there were big rugby matches. When it was busy, one urinal would be used by about 25 people in four hours. He and his manager would sometimes jump in and clean the toilets themselves.

Jacobs denied Maseko’s evidence that she had to clean all the dirty toilets. He said she was a disgruntled former employee.

Judge Mavundla said the restaurant was obliged to guard against foreseeable harm to the public. “One person running around to clean glasses and at the same time clean the toilets - especially on busy rugby days - is not adequate to eliminate the potential danger of slipping presented by wet tiles.”

After spending a weekend with my grandchildren I was reviewing the past years and the way I had lived my life. Unfortunately we don’t get do-overs. While watching my grandchildren create and explore, I wished I had the wisdom in my earlier years while my children were young that I have now.

I spent too much time worrying about whether my house was clean and picked up. I spent too much time worrying about the floors being vacuumed and the dust settling on my furniture. I spent too much time warning about not putting muddy feet on the floor or sticky fingers on the walls. My house was nicely decorated; at least I thought so.

At that time I probably thought my decorating sense was tasteful. Maybe it wasn’t and I was fooling myself and expending too much energy worrying about what others would think when they came to my home.

I spent too much time putting restrictions on my children about what they could or could not do in the house. I stifled all of our creativity because of proper housekeeping methods.

Something in me changed when I had my grandchildren. Immediately I painted my porch bright red, yellow and blue. I painted clouds on the ceiling, a chalkboard on the wall and decorated the porch with clowns. It became the toy room for my grandchildren. I made some puzzle floor tiles for part of the area that are made out of wood, and I painted each piece. They are part of the floor, but they also are a puzzle to play with. I let my creativity run wild for my grandchildren and put aside caring if my house was proper according to standards.

I took the pictures they drew and started putting them up in my small office over the wallpaper. It is a hodgepodge of wallpaper and pictures. I wish I had let go of my perfect when my kids were little and let them explore their creativity more.

I don’t have a good basement. I love my basement of stone walls and rooms and cement floors. It is my crafting basement. I finally got it ready for my grandchildren to let their skills fly in the basement.

Thanksgiving weekend we spent most of the time in the basement. The kids are painting squares and triangles on my cement floor. They are creating a cool floor design. They took apart an old computer piece by piece to see what makes a computer run.Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. They took apart my old I-robot that no longer runs. They set up an old train set. They sketched pictures of themselves for my children’s book that is coming out soon. They didn’t want to leave the basement. Video games, television and even eating took second place to their creativity.

I had someone say to me recently, “You used to take better care of your house. It was always dusted and always vacuumed. Everything was always in its place. What happened to you?”

I didn’t quite know how to answer that. It made me feel lazy, but yet I am always busy. Then I realized I didn’t care. It didn’t matter to me if my house was a little dusty, if my floors once in a while had a few crumbs and that my bed wasn’t always made or that occasionally there were a few dishes in the sink and a craft project was sitting on a cupboard. I think a little hodgepodge mess is who I am.

I didn’t know until I was older that I had the creativity inside of me. Watching my grandchildren discover new skills and interests that they never knew existed inside of themselves was exciting.