Christmas pudding and the patio heater

[Sally090807]

So my son went out on a pub crawl with some friends, they all decided to dress up in Christmas jumpers etc.
Half way through the night they stopped off in a pub beer garden when the guy dressed as a Christmas pudding fell and hit the patio heater which fell and smashed. It was a pyramid shaped one so possibly electric?
The pub landlady came running out with a card reader and said you’re not leaving as I’ve only had that a couple of weeks and then demanded £200 or threatened to call the police if they didn’t pay (no concern if anyone was hurt) so the lads all chipped in and paid.
So should the patio heater of been secured properly and covered by insurance or the lads should of been more careful and were right to pay up.

You are being unreasonable - they should of paid up
You are not being j reasonable, the landlady has a responsibility to make sure patio heaters are secured and they should not of paid.

Did he fall because there was a trip hazard, and any reasonable sober person would be at risk of tripping and falling?

Or did he fall because he was drunk, dressed as a Christmas pudding, and not looking where he was going?

Were they a bit drunk? The heaters might have been secured to a reasonable degree but not able to cope with a clumsy drunk lad. They can't exactly be concreted in and shouldn't have to be.

A bit of both in my opinion.

Probably should have been secured somehow. However they shouldn't have been doing whatever it was that caused the accident.

depends on if he was extremely drunk and farting about causing him to stumble into the heater or if it wasn’t secured properly.

Christmas pudding and the patio heater sounds like a quaint murder mystery novel 😁

The pub should be insured and heater secured. It's a pub - drunken idiots is a given(!)

Was it properly secured ? The ones I've seen were bolted to concrete, presumably to prevent this kind of accident. Whatever the reason for the accident this has to be sorted. She may have wanted a cash payment to avoid an insurance claim that likely wouldn't have paid out.

Our culture excuses too much anti social behaviour that’s caused by alcohol.

If he wasn’t sober enough to calmly explain that the heater wasn’t secured appropriately and to go ahead and call the police, then I’d say he was drunk enough to most likely have been at fault.

Pyramid shapes don’t fall over at the slightest touch.

They are all young, at Uni and work part time jobs at the weekend on a minimum wage. As it was only around 8pm I don’t think they were too drunk and definitely not larking around, not exactly sure how it happened though.

Title sounds like a chunky Xmas girl band

Op, were you there? How do you know they definitely weren't larking about, seems exactly what I would expect from students, especially ones dressed as Christmas puddings

I'm loving the thread title

Practically speaking, the landlady should have insurance to cover accidental damage like this, and I'd also argue that things like patio heaters should be secured and bolted down to prevent things like this from happening.

Wow, what a stupid generalisation.

Surely a contender for “best thread title of the year”?

@skilpadde second para cracked me up

I promise you, students act like dicks. Particularly when alcohol is involved.

You would amazed at how he acts when you're not there.

Cut the apron strings. This is ridiculous and you know it. He needs to learn personal responsibility and he isn't going to when mummy dearest is coming charging in. I feel sorry for your future in-laws already.

If you read what I posted you will see it wasn’t my son but one of the lads he was with. 🙄

I don't think they should have paid. Surely the pub has contents insurance for these kind of mishaps. They're serving alcohol, people will get drunk and accidents will happen. I would've let her call the police!

Do you expect her to put up a sign for them to realise you don't fall on it ?
I think those lads were honourable to pay , they did the decent thing
It's done, they paid
Christ, you'll be chasing compo next

It's too late now if they've paid, but I wouldn't have paid. She's running an establishment specifically designed to have people get drunk. I'm not saying that's a problem, I like a pub as much as the next person, but the environment needs to be fit for purpose and a patio heater that can be accidently knocked over isn't.

They should have let her call the police, it was more likely to be a problem for her and her licence than it was for them if the police were interested at all

I’ve noticed on most posts nowadays that there are so many snide remarks that are completely unnecessary, like “you’ll be chasing compo next”, “cut the apron strings “ etc.
Some people seem to enjoy being dicks.

I don't think they should have paid at all - in fact, I think the landlady was being cheeky expecting them to.

Businesses and public premises are required to have insurance for precisely this reason.

Lol I wasn't being snide @Sally090807 , you sound like you are after something, your son & his friends have accepted they were in the wrong and done the decent thing

And that's why our insurance goes up @thelobsterquadrille , people not taking responsibility for their actions