Accountant loses big over grape gripe
May 14, 2008 by Darlene WatsonPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Insurance, Latest news & views
Slip and fall cases can easily turn sour — but usually, they’re not this literal.
Alexander Martin-Sklan, a UK accountant, recently brought a suit against the grocery chain Marks & Spencer when he took a nasty tumble during a shopping visit.
Did he trip over a loose pallet of canned goods? Step on a freshly waxed floor?
Nope. The culprit was a single grape that became squished on the produce department’s floor and lodged in the accountant’s sandal. He said the offending fruit caused him to slip and fall, leading to severe injuries. His quadricep was ruptured and he claimed to have suffered “severe psychological injury and depression” because of the incident.
As a result of the tragic accident, he claimed his business suffered and he couldn’t ski or play tennis.
For his physical and emotional injuries, Martin-Sklan sued Marks & Spencer for a whopping $587,000. He also chose to represent himself in court.
That was probably his biggest mistake: The judge wasn’t sympathetic and ruled against him. Even if the squished produce caused the accountant to seriously slip — which the judge doubted — the accident was a common occurrence that “could happen to anyone.”
As a result, Martin-Sklan had to pay the store’s legal fees: just over $39,000.
Worse yet: Word on the street is the purple perpetrator is still at large.
Tags: Accountant, Injury, Legal fees, Slip and fall
May 16th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
If same story would have taken place in the United States of America,
he would have sued for 2 million dollars, won 5 million because the jury
felt sorry for the guy having to be in court, and us taxpayers would receive
an increase in our premiums from the insurance company who also
insured the grocery store.
That is the difference between the sanity and insanity or UK and the US
June 27th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I slipped on a grape last week, but I didn’t fall. After a meeting at work where there were refreshments a grape ended up on the floor. I was walking through the break room, stepped on the grape and slid. I caught myself on a table and did not fall, but it was unnerving. So it is very possible that he did slip on the grape through no fault of his own. And the US has taken steps to control unreasonable judgments from jurys, just look at the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding Exxon.