Recently, a woman lost a civil case against world-famous jazz club Ronnie Scott’s, all because a judge ruled that her fall down two flights of stairs occurred because she was drunk, obese and careless. Eren Hussein, the woman in question, was seeking thousands of pounds in damages from the venue after she broke her wrist and elbow at a party in 2012. To be honest, I feel where she’s coming from. Nightclubs are a hazardous place, filled with stairs, ramps and other booby traps that can make getting a drink feel like you’re in some sort of Indiana Jones obstacle course… obviously, it doesn’t help that you’re half cut and can’t see straight.
Eren told the judge that “It was dark, it was dim and I didn’t see my step as I was going down,” she went on to say “I tumbled over and over and over and I injured myself very badly. I recall landing on my neck and the back of my head as well.” Granted, that seems like a pretty shit time and it sounds like she could have a case.
However, Judge Heather Baucher QC wasn’t having a bar of it. She threw out her civil claim and accused Eren of not taking due care, on account of the fact that she was 115kg and trying to walk down the stairs in high heels.“In her inebriated, obese state on three-inch platforms, that would be an obvious, simple step for anyone presented with what they saw as a hazard,” she said.
The judge even went down to check out the scene of the crime and ruled that Eren’s accident was no fault of the venue. Whether this case has a happy ending or not depends on your viewpoint. On one hand, it’s a victory for hospitality workers who put up with unsatisfiable customers and on the other, it’s a sad story for people who get too drunk and fall down stairs.
Source: The Independent
Photo: Jeff Blackler/REX/Shutterstock
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