Claimant recovers £5,265.00 after slipping in a restaurant to include loss of earnings

On the 14 January 2015 the Claimant, a teacher, had gone to the Defendant’s buffet restaurant.

As she was walking back to her table she slipped on some food that had fallen on the floor.  She twisted her left ankle and damaged her left knee.

A claim was made on her behalf by our lawyers against the restaurant, who instructed their insurers to deal with the claim.

The insurers failed to respond within the two month time limit given by the Portal or the three month limit set out in the Personal Injury Protocol.

Accordingly, we wrote to the insurers requiring them to produce various documents and, when they failed to do so, a successful application was made to the County Court requiring production of those documents and payment of the costs of the application.

On receipt of the Court Order the insurers immediately admitted liability.

A medical report was obtained and that was sent to the insurers along with details of the Claimant’s financial losses.

The Claimant provided tuition to school children on a one to one basis.  She did this in her capacity of a director of a limited company which was set up to minimise her tax liability.  The way it worked was that the directors paid themselves a fairly nominal wage each week on which PAYE was deducted, and then at the end of the financial year, depending on the profitability of the company, a dividend was paid.

The Claimant’s income therefore was not affected, but the dividend that was paid at the end of the year was reduced by the £2,000 of tuition fees that were not earned because she was unable to continue teaching for a period of time as a result of the injury.

The insurers initially refused to accept the claim for financial losses and offered £2,425 to the Claimant.

After further negotiation in which the claim for lost earnings/dividend was explained with the assistance of documentation provided by the company’s accountant, the offer was increased and eventually the claim settled at £5,265 plus costs.

This case goes to show that even where a person’s actual earned income is not affected by an accident, but where an annual dividend is reduced, it is possible to recover that loss from the third party.