It’s that time of year where we look towards the Summer and start booking tickets for Festivals and Concerts – the lure of the sunny days and light nights is magical. However, this is Britain. Those hazy Summer days may also be very soggy – but nothing will stop us going out to enjoy them anyway! Unless you fall victim of poor inspection and maintenance regimes, as happened to one of our lovely clients.
Mrs S was attending the BBC Proms Live in Hyde Park event in September 2019. She was a part of a flash mob with her choir and, like her friends and colleagues, was excited at the attendance at the event.
Mrs S travelled from Cardiff to London and was soaking up the atmosphere at the event before the scheduled performance. She and a friend went to use the toilet facilities at a toilet block to the left of the stage. This was a portable toilet construction with a row of cubicles and hand-washing facilities opposite them, much like we’ve all seen at Festivals, Concerts and outdoor events.
Unfortunately, as Mrs S walked along the front of the cubicles to locate a clean one, she slipped on liquid which had been deposited on the floor and fell heavily to the ground, sustaining injuries comprising a soft tissue injury to her left knee. It became immediately apparent that there was some issue with the floor in the portable toilet as her clothing was wet through where she had landed on the floor, and the large amount of liquid on the floor included some gel-like substance which was pink in colour and appeared to form some part of cleaning or disinfectant product emanating from the pipes underneath the sink units.
Mrs S’s friend helped her to sit up on a closed toilet seat and immediately went to seek help. Upon returning, she noted how wet the floor was where our client had fallen, and had the presence of mind to take photographs of the floor and to report the issue to site staff in order to avoid anybody else entering the toilet block whilst it remained in that condition.
Mrs S was, unfortunately, unable to walk unaided immediately following the incident and she therefore was taken straight to the St John’s Ambulance tent where she waited for several hours for her husband to travel from Cardiff to London to collect her and take her home. She subsequently attended hospital and received treatment for her injuries.
Mrs S instructed Martyn Prowel Gartsides Solicitors in respect of her claim for damages.
Following extensive enquiries, Martyn Prowel Gartsides Solicitors were able to establish the identity of the Cleaning Company who were contracted to carry out the cleaning and maintenance of the toilet blocks during the Hyde Park event. Further, we were able to obtain a copy of the Contract for Services between the Festival organisers and the cleaning company, the Conditions of which made it clear that the Cleaning Company were responsible, and provided indemnity for, the cleaning and maintenance of the toilet blocks in question.
Following submission of the claim, however, the Cleaning Company denied responsibility, or liability, for the accident, suggesting that they had carried out appropriate inspections and checks of the area and referring supervisor reports and the use of agency workers engaged in the provision of those services. Martyn Prowel Gartsides Solicitors were not satisfied that the Cleaning Company had, in fact, adhered to their own “standards” nor to the terms of the Contract between them and the Festival organisers. We therefore issued Court Proceedings on behalf of Mrs S. A Defence was filed which again indicated that appropriate checks and inspections had been carried out, and we responded by filing and serving a Reply to Defence setting out a number of discrepancies with the Defendant’s Defence.
The claim was transferred to the Cardiff County Court and the parties were in the process of awaiting further Directions from the Court. For various reasons, not related to the claim for damages, Mrs S wished to seek to achieve final resolution of the matter and, based on the arguments put forward in the claim and Reply to Defence, Martyn Prowel Gartsides were able to persuade the Defendants Solicitors, through negotiation, that an out of Court settlement was appropriate. Martyn Prowel Gartsides Solicitors therefore put forward an official offer of settlement to the Defendant’s Solicitors and final settlement of the claim was achieved in the sum of £7,800 plus costs.
Janine Griffiths, Associate Director at Martyn Prowel Gartsides represented Mrs S throughout her claim and final settlement. She said, “I was really pleased to be able to recover such significant compensation for Mrs S following her accident. All too often in claims such as this, the Defendants will rely on “standard procedures” to try to prove that they have not been negligent or in breach of any duty. Having ploughed through the copious documents which the Defendants provided, we were able to establish that they had not, in fact, complied with their own standards. When we pointed this out to them, they had little alternative but to accept that if the matter were to be decided by the Court, they would likely be unsuccessful”.
Janine Griffiths can be contacted on email at [email protected] or by telephone on 02920470909.