Wet floor, robber slips, loses mask, arrested, will he sue?

An amusing story coming out of the Northern Territory about a well connected (son of a QC) armed robber, who slipped on a wet floor and lost his disguise during a hold up of a KFC outlet:

A MAN charged with the alleged armed robbery of a Darwin fast food outlet in March slipped on a wet floor causing his mask to fall off for a few seconds, a court was told.

Maximillian Courtland Tippett, the son of prominent Territory QC Jon Tippett, and Neil Adam Moseley appeared in the NT Supreme Court charged over the robbery on March 2. …

Mr. Murdoch said the worker who had been mopping the floor fled the store but was chased by one of the men holding a knife. "(But) he just fell down," he said. "His mask fell off ... and I could see his face for two to three seconds." He said he was later asked by police to sketch the man's face.

With today’s penchant for silly litigation’ it would appear that this guy could have a really good case if it can be found that the store was remiss in it’s application of OHS rules. Were proper ‘wet floor’ warning signs as well as ‘slip danger’ and so on displayed prominently?

Should the employee have been carrying out this action at a time when the incursion of armed bandits was a possibility? Did the employee neglect his duty of care to warn the robber coming after him, that running on wet floors, and indeed running with knives was dangerous? He could have injured himself.

Any decent silk would easily prove that the thief has suffered from this event. His identity has been exposed, always a career endangering occurrence in the armed robbery field, and he has suffered the humiliation of being arrested and dragged through the courts. Mental anguish should be easy to claim, and all because of the negligence of a voracious multinational company.

OK, just being a bit tongue in cheek here but in this age the question needs to be asked; “Would this be too bloody silly to happen, or to be taken seriously by the legal system?