Kmart pays out $300,000

Kmart Australia has been forced to shell out $300,000 over an $8 garden chair.

NSW District Court Judge Judith Gibson has ordered the discount department store to pay up after a customer was injured using the product.

Julie Ann Lewis secured the injury after taking the chair from Kmart's gardening section to its in-store processing kiosk.

Ann Lewis moved the chair after no steel seats were available to use in the area.

After setting up the chair, it collapsed and resulted in back, buttock and leg injuries.

Judge Gibson said the store, based in Nowra, was aware of customers taking chairs from other departments.

"The defendant's failure to provide adequate seating for its customers in the photo lab, training for its staff and regulation of equipment use all play a role in relation to the circumstances of the accident," she ruled.