Award value from Selfridges to be determined
20/12/11: The events company engaged by Selfridges store in London will be paying compensation to a grandmother who sustained injuries in a fall at the Store’s Santa’s Grotto in 2009.
Joan Dufosse was with her two grandchildren in the Oxford Street-based grotto in November 2009 when she fell over a plastic icicle, which had fallen from one of the Christmas trees.
Mrs. Dufosse fell and fractured her left thigh, which later required surgery and fitted metal plates to fix completely.
She subsequently made a claim for compensation from Melbry Events Ltd, which ran the grotto. The offending bauble was found to have been in clear view, and as a result easily visible, a court had ruled in March.
The grandmother then appealed the decision at the Civil Appeal Court in London, though, and the decision was overturned. It was revealed that Mrs. Dufosse had stepped back when an individual taking a photograph told her to so she could not have seen the hazard, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The court ruled that the bauble debris should have been cleaned up by the staff running the grotto, and as a result Mrs. Dufosse could now be entitled to up to £30,000; although the exact amount is yet to be decided.
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