Personal injury

[SpiritOfEcstasy]

I recently went to a nail salon to have my nails done. I’m on holiday in the UK. When I was putting my jacket on to leave, my sleeve must have clipped a really big, full bottle of wine that was sitting on their high reception desk. This resulted in the wine bottle falling onto my toe and smashing. The pain was immediate and excruciating and I pretty much went into an instant state of shock. The next day it was swollen & my whole foot was black and blue. I couldn’t put weight on it. I had an X-ray and it is broken and will potentially require surgery to pin it. I contacted the salon and they apologised. I asked for their public liability insurance details - they don’t have any. They are a cash only business so I’m guessing they are also unregistered. Do I just have to suck it up? This happened last month and it’s really impacted my holiday 😞

They should have public liability but even if they did I doubt that you would have a claim. You knocked a visible object off a surface by your own actions. What would you have wanted them to have done to prevent that.

Why do you think the salon is responsible for your injury?

I think it's more likely you'd get compensation from your own travel insurance (depending on its T's and C's

Much as this sounds painful and a difficult thing to go through, I cannot imagine thinking I ought to get a payout for it. Especially as you caused the incident by knocking their wine off the counter.

Maybe not left something so heavy in a place where it could so easily have been knocked over 🤷🏼‍♀️

Because they left something heavy and glass in a place it could very easily be knocked over…

The sleeve of my jacket clipped it when I was putting it on. Do you think from a health and safety perspective it’s okay to leave heavy glass objects where they can easily get knocked off and injure someone?

I can't see that they've been negligent here.

If you knocked a large stationary object off a flat surface then I'd doubt you'd be able to bring a claim against them.

You didnt pay attention to your surroundings and had a clumsy accident, it happens but it's not their fault just because you were in their premises.

By your account no businesses should have vases of flowers on the reception desk or decorative ornaments/statues etc.

Are you serious? You are an adult, not a child. The accident and it was an accident was caused by your clumsiness. Should all businesses then not have anything on display unless it is nailed down? It was an accident pure and simple and you should treat it as such.

Oh dear

Just to be clear, I already know that they are liable. That is not in question. And yes as business owners they do have a duty of care to ensure that things that could potentially fall on a customers do not. The simple definition of negligence is ‘a duty of care was owed ✅ a duty of care was breached ✅ and injury or loss is suffered ✅ I do not expect to go somewhere for a manicure and leave with a broken toe that potentially requires surgery. My ‘legal’ question was regarding the fact that as a business they have no liability insurance & are likely unregistered. So if the judgy, armchair trolls would be kind enough to stay sat down … any advice on the latter would be appreciated.

Cash only. Dodgy!

If they have no insurance then you've got to take a claim against the owners. It's unlikely to be successful because they'll probably just disappear given you have said it's a cash only business so it'll probably shut down and reopen elsewhere under different owners.
Basically if you want compensation for the travel then go via your travel insurance. If you want comp in general you're unlikely to get much joy.

You're going to have a hell of a time proving they were negligent. The only way i can see it is if they left it somewhere precarious and it fell off of its own accord, or if their employee knocked it off.

I'm not sure how you're so sure it was their fault.

I've worked in public liability injury claims. You're not going to get anywhere with this.

How was it simultaneously light enough to have been knocked over by just your sleeve, and also heavy enough to have broken your foot?

I'm afraid if this object was in clear view, and lighting was adequate etc, then you were just being clumsy. Fair enough it would be different in a nursery, or maybe even in a waiting room where there are often young children, but it's not unreasonable or unusual to keep glass bottles in a clearly adult space.

How do you manage in the supermarket or general life when things are on shelves? But yes, agree with pp, how was it so light a touch of your sleeve knocked it, but so heavy it caused so much injury?!

Did the Nail Salon fill in an accident report and give you a copy of the form?

Your definition is not correct.

To be held to be negligent then a court would need to be persuaded that no other salon owner, acting reasonably, would have placed a wine bottle on a similar counter top and that placing the bottle on that counter was likely to cause injury.

This was an unfortunate accident. I think we’ve lost sight of the fact that stuff happens that is no one’s fault. It’s an accident. If a bottle of wine fell off a kitchen top at a friends house and injured your toe would you be suing them?

'Just to be clear, I already know that they are liable. That is not in question.'

So what is your question? You asked earlier if we thought they were liable.

Are you familiar with English law?

Yes, English. Not British, UK or whatever.