The High Court has dismissed Aldi Stores (Ireland) Limited’s claim for contribution and indemnity against a trolley repair company over an employee’s serious injury at its Sandyford store in May 2019.
In a judgment delivered electronically on 21 October 2024, Mr Justice Tony O’Connor found that the court was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the repair company’s engineer had worked on the trolley that injured the employee a week later. The court therefore dismissed Aldi’s claim against the repairer.
The employee began working at the store on 1 May 2019. On 14 May, while moving cages of goods and returning packaging to a storeroom, she pushed one trolley and pulled another. A sharp object at the base of a trolley pierced her heel and severed her Achilles tendon. The tendon was repaired at St James’s Hospital the following day.
The employee had settled her claim against Aldi and the repairer. The separate issue before the court was Aldi’s allegation that the repairer had left the relevant trolley in a dangerous condition. The court also recorded that there was effectively no disagreement among the independent engineers that Aldi had fallen short of duties in training and supervising the employee, particularly in relation to pushing and pulling trolleys at the same time.
The repairer’s engineer, Elton Daly, gave evidence that on 7 May 2019 he repaired four trolleys left for his attention, working on their wheels and frames and fixing a bracket on one. The court said it was clear from his evidence that he had not repaired the trolley Aldi identified as the one involved in the injury.
Aldi relied on CCTV footage, photographs of eight trolleys taken two days after the injury, and evidence from store managers. The judge found the CCTV had little persuasive value on whether Daly repaired the relevant trolley. Aldi did not tag or track its trolleys, and one manager accepted that assumptions should not be made when identifying the trolley. Another witness could not identify it from the footage. The court also noted inconsistencies between the evidence of two Aldi witnesses and the absence of a process to track, count or secure unsafe trolleys.
The court directed that Aldi must pay the repairer’s costs of defending both the employee’s claim and Aldi’s contribution and indemnity claim unless Aldi filed written submissions, limited to 1,000 words, within 14 days of electronic delivery and requested an oral hearing. Any such costs would be adjudicated if the parties could not agree, and would include reserved costs and specified discovery costs. The judgment does not state whether submissions were later filed or what final costs order followed.