Employer liable for home carer’s slip injury

Kennedy v Cordia (Services) LLP (Scotland) Personal Injury Compensation Volume 32 Number 2, [2016] UKSC 6, 10 February 2016

This was an appeal from Scotland by a home carer employed by Cordia. In the course of her work, she visited clients in their homes to provide personal care. One evening in mid-December 2010, she was required to visit an elderly lady following several weeks of sever wintry conditions, which had resulted in lying snow and ice. A colleague had driven Ms Kennedy to the house, and had parked the car close to a sloping public footpath leading to the property. Ms Kennedy slipped and fell, so injuring her wrist. The evidence was that Cordia was aware of risks faced by its home carers, especially the risk of slipping on snow and ice when visiting clients’ houses in the winter.