In a NSW case, Burns v Hoyts Pty Ltd (2002) Aust Torts Reports 81-637, a woman suffered injury to the coccyx, discs and ligaments of the lumbar spine when she attempted to sit on a retracted seat at the cinema. She attended the cinema in her capacity as a teacher's aide and was responsible for the welfare of a disabled child. After rising to attend to the child, she did not realise that her seat would revert to the vertical position, attempted to sit down, and suffered injury.

The cinema owners did not dispute that they owed a duty of care to their patrons. The issue was whether or not there was a reasonably foreseeable risk that if a patron in a darkened cinema was not aware that the cinema seat automatically retracted when the patron stood up and believed it was still in place, the patron would attempt to sit without putting the seat down.

The court found that there was a reasonably foreseeable risk of injury that could have been simply avoided by the cinema owner displaying a warning sign in the foyer and inside the cinema alerting patrons to the retracting mechanism of the seating. The court found that, in this instance, a warning sign would have alerted the woman to the operation of the seating and avoided the risk of injury to her.