The NSW Court of Appeal has overturned a decision to award a woman $91,117 after she slipped on grandstand steps and fell heavily on the concrete while attending a National Rugy League (NRL) game.

The lower court had found against Venues NSW in determining it had breached its duty of care by not installing a handrail, but the appeal decision finds that a reasonable stadium occupier would not have put in a railing and the risk was familiar and obvious.

The court heard that Kerri Kane had attended the McDonald Jones Stadium in Broadmeadow, Newcastle to watch an NRL game with her husband and a friend on July 6 2019. The weather was rainy and the steps wet and Ms Kane fell as she descended the western grandstand lower concourse. It was argued that there should have been a handrail on the concrete wall.

The Court of Appeal did not put weight on issues around the step’s chamfer or the subsequent use of yellow strips, after those issues were raised.

“Ms Kane did not place her foot on the chamfer. She did not overstep. She placed her foot fully on the horizontal surface of the step,” the decision says. “Even if the edge of the step had been more visible than it was, it has not been shown how the placement of a yellow nosing strip would have prevented the fall.”

Justices Mark Leeming, Christine Adamson and Carolyn Simpson said the breach finding “could not stand” for multiple reasons including “an erroneous construction” of Section 5B of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) and the obvious nature of the danger presented by the steps.

The decision, in looking at the Act’s requirements, says there was an entirely foreseeable risk of harm of spectators slipping on the steps and injuring themselves and the risk was “not insignificant” but the question was whether a reasonable occupier would have installed handrails.

“The use of stepped aisles without handrails in similar stadiums is commonplace,” the justices say. “The structure had been certified as fully compliant eight years earlier. The evidence did not disclose any history of earlier falls resulting in injury, despite the stairs being used by millions of spectators over the previous eight years.”

The expense of installing other handrails adjacent to similarly positioned aisles, and their effectiveness was also considered in the decision.

Previously, the District Court had awarded $91,117 to Ms Kane. That included general damages of $35,500, out-of-pocket expenses of $1575, with a buffer of $2500 for future expenses and a buffer of $40,000 for future economic loss. The judge also allowed $1542 for past economic loss for the period immediately after the accident and a separate buffer of $10,000 including lost superannuation.

The Court of Appeal decision, handed down last month, set aside the District Court’s orders on December 14 last year and February 8.

The appeal decision is available here.