What are the next steps after a restaurant highchair accident?

[BessieBye]

This evening we went to a local restaurant that we go to a fair bit. We had pre booked the table so it was set out with a highchair for my 7 month old DS

About 5 minutes after sitting down, my DH put my son into the highchair. For clarity it was an IKEA highchair with no tray, so the chair was tucked under and his body close to the table.

A minute later, the highchair fell to the floor - with my son in it. Turns out, the highchair only had 3 legs, one had been detached. The front left leg was missing so we did not notice as it was already tucked half under the table.

He fell still in the sitting position within the highchair and hit his head - it has a red mark and we have been to A&E, he’s fine. His chin must’ve missed the table by a cm.

My parents were with us and my Dad is ready to start WW3 and he told them to expect to hear from a solicitor. Manager of restaurant accepted that the leg was missing and it was their fault.

We left very soon after and obviously for me it is all a blur

My question is, will a solicitor actually achieve anything here? Is it worth it? He wants to pursue negligence

I am too shocked to be angry right now, I burst into tears everytime it replays in my head. I thought I was going to be physically sick.

thanks for any advice

Not exactly. It's a very basic principle that if you cause someone foreseeable injury through negligence, you are not just liable for financial loss, you are also liable to pay damages for pain, suffering and inconvenience.

On the face of it, if your child has no long-term damage then the damages he would be entitled to would be pretty nominal and not worth pursuing. However if (God forbid) it turned out that there are any underlying longer-term problems then he would absolutely be entitled to compensation both for pain and suffering and also for any longer term financial losses.

Thank you very much for this

I’m sorry but I don’t call giving a faulty high chair to customer an accident. It is NEGLIGENCE. From the point the leg was broken (whenever it happened) the high hair should have been removed from the dining area or even better removed from premises. And surely you can feel agd realise the chair wobbly when it was set up under the table? Or did they think the table would hold it up instead?

The restaurant is extremely lucky that the child suffered no injury really.

Take no notice. My grandson is just over seven months old and has been sitting up and trying to stand for a few weeks now. He’s perfectly safe in his high chair.

Let the dust settle tell your dad to butt out
and contact the restaurant tomorrow to make sure it’s in the accident book
it’s been established it not a compensation issue so unless you have an idea in mind of what you want to achieve I wouldn’t bother

My DH said it wouldn’t go in an accident book because I walked out of the restaurant with our son almost immediately after it happened and didn’t return. Is that correct?

I agree. Someone deliberately removed a leg and someone knowingly put a high chair with a missing leg out for customers to use.

Clearly they didn't have a process to check this, so the least they need to do is ensure they introduce one, as another time someone could get seriously hurt.

The whole point of having such processes is to catch 'accidents' when they happen.

@BessieBye I’m really sorry this happened. It must have been a fright fir you.

As others have said, because your ds hasn’t (Thankfully!!) any injury, it would be hard to go down the legal route.

At best, you could go back to the restaurant, have a chat with them to check
1- theyve recorded the incident
2- what they’ve done about it - from putting the highchair in the bin to understanding why it hadn’t been out away, highchair not checked befire using it, what do they do about broken equipment/chairs etc….
Youre not going to get more than that - this is how we will ensure it never happens again - but at least you can rest assured no one else will exierience that too.

Very legitimate reason to stop at two. Mine is that my two have more energy than the sun and I’m very, very tired 😁

FWIW, I think the best route to feeling like you have done something in response is, as others have suggested, ensure it is recorded in their accident book and for an explanation of how it happened and how they will ensure it’s a one off. Preventing it from happening again is the only real tangible output.

Actually, you do. If you were in an accident where, for instance, you broke your leg but for some reason suffered no financial loss at all, you would still be entitled to damages for your initial pain and suffering and any risk of long term problems.

This misconception pops up so often on MN, it's quite extraordinary.

Appreciate this, thank you. Might have to be DH that contacts them though as I don’t think I’ll be calm enough!

I very much hope you're not a lawyer . . .

@dapsnotplimsollsIt’s difficult to prove they knew. It might have happened the day before and no one noticed. That doesn’t mean they should not have checked but compensation will need to prove negligence and that’s quite difficult to do. What are the costs of a solicitor and court case? It’s not worth it.

HSE possibly. There was a case where a huge shop mirror was propped against a wall in a changing room and it fell on a toddler. Certainly HSE were involved in that case because the toddler was brain damaged - Hugo Boss were fined £1.2m. So maybe HSE should be informed.

TBF I haven't read all of the answers but I k ow peoples default is often a threat to sue someone! Not saying thats you by any means but in my last job we had quite a lot of legal threats (nature of the role).
I definitely feel that your dad would be very justified in reporting the restaurant to the HSE/RIDDOR and at least that way, you know you've done your best to ensure this doesn't happen to someone else with potentially worse consequences. Often HSE will find a lot of shoddy practice behind the scenes and this will be the tip of the iceberg. Definitely don't let the restaurant sweep it under the carpet with a lukewarm, apologetic email saying the matter is being 'investigated '

"Tar and feather"? You're being hysterical and dramatic.

You’ve described compensable damage. It’s known as PSLA. You couldn’t get that for a baby’s non-serious injury

I do sometimes wonder about posters who think they know best.

I'm glad your son is OK after that. I would be livid and would certainly pursue the matter, not for financial restitution, as none is needed but I would notify HSE and CAB, who should involve Trading Standards. I would probably also tell the Environmental Health Dept, who deal with food hygiene etc. I would want this dreadful incident published as widely as possible and a court case, brought by an official body is the best way to do that.

The child was killed.

I think it's worth talking to a qualified solicitor about what might be achieved by bringing a claim for negligence. It's negligence rather than an accident that a faulty high chair was provided. It would have been obvious that one leg was missing when a staff member put it at the table. It's obviously foreseeable that a defective chair that collapsed as soon as a baby was placed in it was likely to injure a child. A reasonable restaurant wouldn't have allowed a defective high chair (with the missing leg in sight!) to be used. You can also clearly link the defective chair to your baby being hurt: the defective chair collapsed, the collapse caused the baby to fall, the fall caused a head injury (which you have evidence of, because you had them examined at A&E).

I've no idea what, if anything, you may be awarded in terms of financial compensation, but you could claim for general damages for pain and injury, travel expenses to/from the hospital, cost of any medication, future medical expenses (if necessary).

I think if it was likely I would win and the other side would have to pay my court costs, I would pursue it, because the restaurant needs to understand the severity and face whatever legal penalty there is. They clearly have very lax training if it isn't made clear to staff that faulty equipment should never be used, particularly when it is there to support children.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there.. I feel like an apology is not enough right now and I need to see it’s not being swept under the carpet, like you say.

When you begin to tell people in real life you will have some people tell you than you should sue them. Think very carefully about this and I speak from experience of it, it is a long drawn out process even if the other party immediately accepts responsibility. And it involves re-living the incident for longer than is healthy.
I mention it because I can tell you are traumatised by the incident and you need to weigh up whether it’s worth it in the long run.

Also I can’t imagine there would be a valid claim if there was no recorded injury sustained but I’m not an expert.

Report it to the local authority health and safety team. They can investigate, like the HSE does and can prosecute. You may wish to claim for your sons injuries and perhaps if its affected you/your DH/parents mental state, for that too. Noone knows if your skin n has been affected by it yet - he has injuries, thankfully not significant, but injuries none the less on his face.

I'm like your DF, angry at them for doing this, he's a baby and vulnerable, they didn't give a shit and need to pay for that.

It wasn’t an accident. It was negligence because the restaurant knew the high chair was missing a leg. It was fortunate the baby want badly hurt.

I understand, thank you. This was the whole point of my post, to get answers like this (and many others what I haven’t replied to). The more genuine responses I read, the less angry I feel at the ones trying to mock me or blame me!

It wasn't an accident, its negligence. I wouldn't care about the money but that fact of what could have happened is addressed