[Nerina]

Silly man, it was supposed to be a banana......

LONDON (Reuters) - An accountant who tried to sue British retail chain Marks & Spencer after he slipped on a grape and injured himself lost his case on Wednesday and was ordered to pay legal costs.

Alexander Martin-Sklan, 55, sued for more than 300,000 pounds ($600,000) over the 2004 incident in which he said a squashed grape from the store got lodged under the sole of his right sandal, causing him to slip and fall.

He said he suffered a ruptured quadricep, adverse psychological effects and depression following the incident, which meant that his business suffered and he could no longer ski or play tennis.

But the judge ruled against him, determining that while there may have been a grape or some "crushed fruit or similar" on the sole of Martin-Sklan's sandal, he was not persuaded that it "caused the claimant to slip."

"In my judgment it was one of those accidents that could happen to anyone," the judge said.

Martin-Sklan, who represented himself in the case, was ordered to pay the retailer's legal fees of nearly 20,000 pounds. He refused to comment after the judgment.


Accountant loses $600,000 grape lawsuit - Yahoo! News

[7 Dying Trees]

Thank god for that. The last thing I want to see over here is a US style compensation culture where people blame their own idiocy on something else.

For the record:
1) Yes, it is your fault
2) Yes, you are a muppet
3) Yes, you are a candidate for the darwin awards
4) No, you don't need money to compensate you for the mental anguish of realizing you are a tard

[The Dark Wolf]

This one probably best belongs in Politics & Current Events...

[halsinden]

this happened a few hundred metres from my father’s house in the hampstead garden suburb. i’m sorry to say that it’s immensely idiosyncratic of the behaviour of most of the people on the golders green side of hampstead.

we’re all pretty much hoping that the judge’s ‘no nonsense’ angle will act as a precedent against all other UK ‘ambulance chaser’ cases, leaving the way clear for genuine and necessary cases of injury and tort law.

similarly, and oddly enough at the pedestrian crossing merely yards away from where this idiot slipped outside marks & sparks, there was a famous case of an old chap who had just begun crossing, with both feet in plain view on the crossing’s markers. in UK law, if this is visible from the car approaching, they have to stop to allow the crossing. a snazzy sportscar wanker was speeding up to the crossing and decided he’d make it before the old dude, which he did, but in a moment of near-ninja reflex the OAP swung his walking stick round and completely smashed the rear window of the car. the driver ground to a halt, got out and went at the aging pedestrian, who cut him short by saying “sue me.”. first time i’d ever heard that phrase.

H

[TheMissing]

Wow... He must have had a br00tal fall... I've slipped on things and bruised me bum, but a ruptured quadricept?