British Airways is being forced to pay £130,000 after a man slipped in a puddle of Bailey’s at Heathrow… but perhaps the case isn’t quite as frivolous as it sounds.
Continue reading: British Airways Pays £130,000 For Baileys Slip
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Ya seems a low award but reasonable given the strict liability the guy lost a lot
BA might reclaim it from the airport authority. There’s another case where someone slipped on a petal by a florist at A London station and suffered serious injury claiming £1.5 million . The florist was deemed liable. Many times I’ve seen liquids , squished fruit and veg on supermarket floors that are accidents waiting to happen
I had a passenger slip on the corridor leading to the jetway when boarding.
The case was referred to me as the airline by the airport, claiming as it was on the jetway it was the airlines liability.
It was on the corridor pre-jetway and the area had an engineers report for the condensation issue which caused the slip.
I referred it back to the airport authority and their lawyers took on the liability.
As Terminal 5 is the airport authority’s to operate and maintain, I would imagine that it will be referred back to them by BA, especially if a call for a cleaner had already been put in.
The following is not meant to be insensitive.
However,
if only he had landed face first, perhaps he would not have remembered the incident.
The Montreal jurisprudence is quite detailed and extensive in every country where it has been tested--which is just about all of them. The process of "embarking and disembarking" could be defined differently in each country depending on how the country's courts have viewed it. It seems the British courts have taken an expansive view of the airline's check-in podium liability as opposed to that of the terminal owner/operator. This and other type airline claims are reviewed at my work, R.D. Truitt, Plain Talk about Plane Claims: An Air Carrier Claims Examiner's Handbook, 80 J. Air L. & Com. 449 (2015) https://scholar.smu.edu/jalc/vol80/iss2/6.
I believe it might be a case that while happening at Heathrow , Heathrow Airport Holdings may not be the liable party if occurring at Terminal 5. British Airways may actually be the operator of the terminal, not simply the main tenant.
Long gone are the days when people took responsibility for their own mistakes.
Remember, LHR is owned by a for-profit company and T5 was essentially built for BA. Heathrow Group might have no janitorial responsibilities in T5 if they outsourced them to BA.
How did he manage to spill the Baileys from his bag without anyone noticing..............
And do you think a corporation would not exercise their legal rights, had they been wronged by the customer? Seems a little odd to ask people to “own their mistakes” when the company had breached their obligation.
Ever heard of your mother telling you to "look where you are going"
And if you step out in front of a car without looking, I suppose by your analysis, it's the driver's fault. What a bent way of thinking.
Have you heard of a thing called the law? It has nothing to do with what is “right” or “wrong” by your standards, and everything to do with what is legally required of BA, the airport and/or the passenger.
By your terrible analogy, I would absolutely sue the driver if I had right of way.
We've all seen a spill somewhere in our travels. Of course if we can alert someone on staff about it is helpful.
If no one to be found, we put a napkin or some tissue on it to show/warn others of a wet spot to avoid.
Look its not much but we're all in this world together, alittle thing like that might be able to save someone else alot of suffering.