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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to ask you for help on who I should sue...?

105 replies

stuckstudent · 31/12/2016 10:32

I need to preface this by saying I'm a regular poster who has name changed as this isn't a RL scenario - I'm absolutely stuck with part of an assignment I don't want my tutor to work out I don't know what I'm doing

Six months ago you visited a restaurant, before you entered a dog escaped from a pet shop two doors away. Dog runs into the road causing a car to swerve and hit a lamppost which in turn falls on the pavement and causes a chair on the pavement, belonging to the restaurant, to fly into the air. The chair hits you on the head, knocks you unconscious and you break an arm in the fall. You have to take 4 months off work.

If you wanted to pursue a personal injury and loss of earnings claim who would you issue proceedings against? I think you would claim against the restaurant's public liability insurance but my DH thinks you, and the car driver, would pursue a claim against the pet shop for negligence...

AIBU to ask MN to save my sanity?!

OP posts:

Thistledew · 31/12/2016 11:10

True Candlestick.

You may want to bring the claim against both the driver and pet shop, should the driver prove not to be negligent. Damages may well be apportioned between them. I may be mistaken but I believe the driver's claim against the pet shop would be referred to as a Part 20 Counterclaim, which is a slightly different thing to a standard counterclaim.

Ellisandra · 31/12/2016 11:12

Indeed. OP won't be helped by "the answer" here. She needs to be pointed towards the areas of law that she has missed or not understood. Which is why I think she should go to her tutor.

And in these type of questions, it really is a "show your workings out" type situation. If there was a right answer, there would be no court, judgement would be made via computer algorithm!

OP needs to understand foreseeability, remoteness, chains of causation, and intervening acts.

I used to enjoy these puzzles, and we'd mess about making them longer...

E.g. What if the dog escaped because the cage was suddenly broken into by an animal rights activist? And what if the restaurant had ordered super-lite can't hurt a fly chairs but a person working for the manufacturer deliberately used a heavier grade metal so he could steal the lightweight material...

HappyFlappy · 31/12/2016 11:12

I would sue the dog owner (whether that was an individual or the pet shop). It is up to the owner to keep the dog under control in a public place.

I hope the owner has good insurance, as I imagine the car driver will be suing the @rse off them, too.

RJnomore1 · 31/12/2016 11:13

I'm getting flashbacks with Bodgitt and Runn...

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 31/12/2016 11:14

It would depend if the restaurant had a license for outdoor furniture I think? And check if cars are meant to hit animals rather than swerve, I think thy are sonpossibly the driver

Witchend · 31/12/2016 11:15

I would imagine the dog was with an owner who was buying stuff from the pet shop.

GarrulousGrimoire · 31/12/2016 11:17

Itsbeen years since I did business law but this is "Tort" right?

I think you would need to work out liabilities and causation and potentially sue several of the participants! Try this link:

www.cloisters.com/images/easyblog_images/49/updated-final-handout-who-to-sue-2.docx

Oh and yes, ask your tutor for guidance on text books to look at, that's what they are there for!

Candlestickchick · 31/12/2016 11:17

thistledew you're probably right!! I never remember the right terminology for part 20 these days and have to look it up afresh every time.

honeylulu · 31/12/2016 11:22

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/22/contents
Check this out (Animals Act 1971) might have the answer or part of an answer.
Also wondered about the rule in Rylands v Fletcher (duty to prevent a dangerous thing kept on land from escaping and "causing mischief"), although I works not be surprised the Animals Act was brought in to particularly address duties involving animals.

Ellisandra · 31/12/2016 11:23

Yes, I'm trying to imagine how to make the employee delivering the wrong (too heavy) chairs be "on a frolic of his own".
Maybe if he was delivering the heavy cheaper ones to the restaurant, after swapping the order to give the hi-tech space light ones to his mate?

Then let's add in not one but two restaurant employees being off sick with pulled back muscles from listing said chairs, and the owner writing on the delivery note "accepted but appear to be wrong colour".

I do love adding twists and turns.

I'm surprised the person who fell didn't have a pre-existing balance condition so we can throw in a bit of take them as you find them...

Original poster

stuckstudent · 31/12/2016 11:24

Thank you for all of your responses - it's pushed me to what appears to be the right pages of my text book so I can probably muddle through from here.

To the PP asking what I'l do when I qualify as a lawyer - I'm not intending on practising law; I work in a loosely connected field and I missed studying after completing my post grad - it seemed like something fun to do last year before I knew we'd have a new baby and a massive house renovation next year! I just need to make it through to May and I can defer for a year until I have a bit of brain power back!

OP posts:

Candlestickchick · 31/12/2016 11:26

elisandra

Yes and why not that the driver had recently had his brakes repaired but the garage buggered it up so the brakes didn't work. Driver didn't bother to use them but if he had they wouldn't have worked - loved a bit of overdetermination back in the day

BahHumbuggle · 31/12/2016 11:26

You sue the car driver.

Suing the restaurant would be done under the occupiers liability act which covers negligence and breach. There has been no negligence on the part of the restaurant and no breach.

You cannot sue the pet shop - that is ridiculous.

Thistledew · 31/12/2016 11:29

Candlestick - I had to have a quick look at the CPR for the right section! More than 10 years since I last used it.

BahHumbuggle · 31/12/2016 11:30

The driver would not sue the pet shop. Again, he has no legal defence to bring an action against them. It would be an enormous waste of time. If the pet shop sold dogs - that is an issue for the council. A dog running in the road is not the fault of the shop it came from. If you swerved to avoid hitting a rogue office chair that had been left in the road would you then find out its origins and sue the shop? No.

horizontilting · 31/12/2016 11:31

You sue the Daily Mail for failing to pick up on a wonderful photo opportunity - you, the dog, the fallen lamp post, the car driver and a big red arrow to the culpable chair. It could have been sadface gold.

Best of luck with your assignment though.

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 31/12/2016 11:33

Wouldn't you sue the restaurant, simply because it's such a long chain of events you probably wouldn't know where it started? Or it would have happened too quick for you to follow properly?

I say trick question

ParadiseCity · 31/12/2016 11:35

PMSL @ contact Watchdog.

This scenario is a bit like the old lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why.

BahHumbuggle · 31/12/2016 11:36

The easy answer of a tort lawyer but one which will get you approximately 3%: depends how much the claim is worth, if the loss of earnings don't push it over the 25k limit I'd stick it on the portal and sue all 3 to get things moving.

Fintress · 31/12/2016 11:41

if I could I would... I'm 13 weeks pregnant and have spent my first trimester napping at any opportunity; not a great combination for pursuing a law degree and working full time!

Studying law is lots of reading. LOTS. And a whole lot more research. If you don't put the work in yourself you will flounder in the exams. Assignments are easy in comparison. I don't know what stage your are at but It is only going to get much more difficult.

myoriginal3 · 31/12/2016 11:50

Just ring injurylawyersforu

Original poster

stuckstudent · 31/12/2016 11:51

Thank you Fintress for that positive affirmation [ ... you should meet my mother.

OP posts:

YetAnotherSpartacus · 31/12/2016 12:02

I wouldn't sue anyone. I'd get a lawyer to work that one out. Meanwhile, your tutor probably needs a nice bottle of whisky in order to cope with the marking ...

myoriginal3 · 31/12/2016 12:04

You're going to have to make a lot of assumptions too I fear.

PurpleMinionMummy · 31/12/2016 12:37

OP, a quick google might bring this post up and this forum is public. I'd get it deleted before it lands you in the shitter. If you get grassed up it will be game over. Someone very publicly grassed up a student on my course last year, and they posted their question on a private forum. It's not worth the risk.

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