The plaintiff was a government lawyer who slipped and fell in the kitchenette of her office as a result of water that had leaked out from under the sink from a hot water dispenser. Following a trial, Justice Roger dismissed the action, holding that the defendants had in place a reasonable cleaning and inspection regime as well as a call service that would alert them of any issues in the kitchenette. He rejected the evidence of the plaintiff’s expert, who had not attended the premises and did not conduct any slip testing. He accepted the evidence of the defendant’s expert, who conducted testing to measure the floor’s slip resistance. Despite dismissing the claim, Justice Roger went on to consider the issues of causation and damages. He found that the plaintiff’s psychological impairments largely predated the incident. He held that in the event the plaintiff was awarded damages, the defendant would not be permitted to deduct any LTD benefits the plaintiff received as a result of the private insurance exception to the common law principles regarding deduction of collateral benefits. Finally, Justice Roger held that had the plaintiff been successful on the issue of liability, he would have awarded the plaintiff general damages in the sum of $80,000, and damages for past loss of income in the sum of $290,562.
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