Non Ski accident on resort - help needed please

A snowHead

Hi All,

I have just returned from a trip to Austria, unfortunately I had an accident on my first day there and have fractured my foot in 2 places, ruptured ligaments in the same foot and have fractured my elbow. This meant I was in a wheelchair for the entire stay, my friend that came with me and my 2 sons could not ski as they were looking after me.

I will be claiming on my travel insurance for the medical costs (had to pay upfront) but I was wondering if anyone has ever successfully sued for injuries caused by negligence? I had gone t book ski lessons at our local ski lift and on the way back down the stairs (I wasn't in ski attire) I fell, basically a piece of the protective mat on the stairs was missing for 2 steps and that's how I lost my footing. My friend took photos of the stairs.

I am self employed so this will cause me great problems with work and our holiday was ruined, we were stuck in our room for most of the time as the resort we were on was too hilly for the wheelchair.

Any help is much appreciated, I hope I have explained things well.

A snowHead

Oh no! It must have been very slippery!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The stairs were covered so no snow on them, it was just the mat was partly missing on 2 steps and that's how I lost my footing Sad

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@MrsClooney, Some years ago a friends daughter broke her leg skiing & it was badly treated in France, resulting in an amputation. He sued successfully, but the legal paperwork & meetings took years to sort out & it really took his toll on him. He would now admit that he was chasing a principle, not financial gain. Out of interest,why did it take 3 people to look after you with a broken foot?

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@genepi, how dreadful! Sad

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@MrsClooney, as @genepi says, negligence litigation is a long and gruelling process,especially in another country. But, if you end up with long-term damage (I hope you won't) and/or unmet expenses, and IF - very important if - you can get legal expenses underwritten (either under an insurance policy or on a no win no fee basis) it might be worth a go. The toll on you will be minimised if you go into such litigation in the right frame of mind, which is: it won't cost me anything except time, so I might as well at least give it a try.

Such an unfortunate accident. I hope you recover quickly and completely.

Oh, and welcome to snowHeads. Sad first post. Sad

After all it is free

so why would you think that falling down the stairs is someone else fault, even if a piece of matting isn't there?

were you not negligent in not looking where you were going?

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@emwmarine, I wondered when someone would inevitably be along to say the OP is a vexatious litigant. It is not for us to say whose fault this was, but for the OP's advisers, having examined the evidence. Twisted Evil

But that's nothing when compared to the crime of beginning a sentence with 'so'. Skullie

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@pam w, me too (obviously).

@genepi, I know someone whose daughter ended up with leg amputation, years ago, I think it all went wrong in Moutiers hospital . South coast sailor, maybe the same family?

I broke my knee about ten years ago falling down a couple of stairs, but that was in our own chalet and was really my own fault, failure to pay attention.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@emwmarine, have you seen the matting or photographs of it? And how do you know the OP wasn't looking where she was going? It's really not for you to jump to conclusions, not to mention being so unsympathetic to someone who is plainly having a very hard time. I call that pathetic.

A snowHead

I am not a lawyer but if my memory is correct (and I may be very rusty) it is necessary under English law to prove four aspects of negligence:

1. A duty of care existed
2. There was a breach in the duty of care
3. The breach caused the injury
4. The injury caused financial loss.

In my line of work I occasionally got involved in the last aspect and that alone was often difficult to prove. Your ability to carry out your work with a broken foot and elbow would depend on the nature of the work. Loss of income would depend on how long it prevented you doing the work and whether the work was just deferred or completely lost as a result of it. Calculating and proving loss of income when you are self-employed is not straightforward.

A snowHead

Commiserations on such an awful accident.
I still don't get why the kids didn't go to their ski lessons, or why you were stranded in resort?
Did your insurers not offer to fly you home early?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@albatross, my memory's also rusty, but all that sounds right, including the difficulty of establishing loss. That's why I wouldn't personally pursue a claim unless there were ongoing issues and why I certainly wouldn't throw any potentially irrecoverable money at it.

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Sorry to hear you were injured. I personally think trying to pursue a claim like that in another country simply won't be worth the time and effort. I'd focus on getting better and back to work asap instead.

I've successfully won a claim in this country, and it took nearly two years from start to finish. There was a lot of time, meetings, paperwork, medical examinations, an MRI scan, physio and finally surgery involved. The total bill for the other party's insurance ran into tens of thousands. I hope to never have to do anything like that again but I'm glad I did for the principle involved.

If you do go ahead, best of luck and also best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

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@dogwatch,

After all it is free

@emwmarine,

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[quote="Hurtle"]@emwmarine,

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

From my long-ago training in Tort, what @albatross said sounds right, at least as far as the UK goes. Something about reasonable foreseeability also rings a bell. How it works in another country is not, however, necessarily the same, and the cross-border element will in many ways complicate issues.
You should be able to claim losses for things like lift passes etc from your travel insurance, if they were cashed in, other incidental expenses too if receipts were kept ( curtailment unlikely if you stayed the full duration) - so your main claim, presumably, is for loss of earnings and for damages for past, present and potential future pain and suffering. Doubtless one of the online- or TV-advertising legal firms will consider your case and advise you further, so I suggest contacting one who has specialism in accidents abroad. Your travel insurance should have some legal expenses cover, or sometimes cases can be taken cross- country on a conditional fee basis.
It won't be likely to be quick or hassle-free though. Depends on how much you really are or expect to be out of pocket and how much of a problem and long-lasting issue your injury really is as to whether it's worth having a go, and if someone will take it on for you.

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Is it not possible for those that are self employed to take out some form of insurance cover in the event of illness or accident?

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I used to work with Chris Exall who was/is an expert witness in ski injury cases, a Google search should find him. He may be able to offer advice.

Get well soon BTW

A snowHead

A snowHead

On a slight tangent, I've had 3 weeks skiing this season and almost every restaurant I've been in has tiled floors and stairs that become lethally skiddy with ski boots + water/snow. Torvill & Dean would have been mightily impressed with some of the moves. Embarassed

Have they never heard of grip tape or anti-skid surfaces? Or do they do it deliberately to save the CCTV video footage and collect £200 from You've Been Framed? Barstewards! Laughing

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@king key, this is true. I've seen many a skier come a cropper at a restaurant. Best one for spectators was the poor lady with the spaghetti bolognese. She slipped, the plate went up in the air, she landed flat on her back and the spag bol landed all over her face and hair. The whole restaurant was torn between feeling sorry for her and trying not to laugh Embarassed

.

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@king key, A well-known observation. Devious plan by locals to gain enjoyment at the expense of recreational foreign skiers who can't walk in thier boots.
Or snide evil tactic by snowboarders for said same chuckling amusement? snowHead

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My answer to the OPs question is that I would think it extremely unlikely that you would get anything like a meaningful result from litigation over something after the event and in a foreign court, especially in a winter sports location (even if you weren't in ski gear). But I'm sympathetic inasmuch as when I was an employee of a large corporation, my employment insurance cover would have meant that my employer's insurers would have taken the case up if it had meant that I wasn't able to work. Now I'm self-employed, I could go for cover from someone like Hiscox, whereby I'd have the same sort of facility, but it's so expensive that I don't think it's worth it. You'd be claiming against the insurer who is covering the building's owner or the business operating the facility, so it'd be an individual against a corporate insurer - for which the odds aren't good. If you had work insurance cover then it would be more evenly-balanced.

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I would think that thoughts of legal action may make things worse.

You have no medical costs to recover. Needing 3 people to forfeit their time and holidays to care for an adult with broken bones is not likely to have been foreseeable as a consequence of anything. The other party would suggest this was a cost you could have limited.

The fact that your employment can't be done with healing bones ... not foreseeable. Even in the US I've knowledge of cases (they are part of the public record and can be googled) where a dental hygienist with broken fingers could not claim damages for this reason.

As per the recent Ronnie Scott (UK) case, people are expected to take care and use a hand rail. Was there a rail?

Did the building owner take action following the fall and change the stair? Were there any witnesses as to the fall?

Broadly, I'd work on getting better.

---
Carrying food down stairs? Crazy people... actually most North American places are designed to avoid precisely that. And I've never seen one without a hand rail.

After all it is free

@philwig, no-one said they were carrying food downstairs. They were carrying it across a restaurant terrace.

Help!!

Non Ski accident on resort - help needed please

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