We acted for the parents of a young lad (only aged 8 at the time of his accident) who suffered an injury to his right hand during July 2012. On the day in question, he was sitting in a changing room at a hotel in Swindon with his younger cousin. They were getting changed to go swimming. In the course of some play acting, a heavy wooden bench toppled over and landed on his right hand, crushing it. It was our case against the hotel that:-

  • the bench in question was heavy and not properly secured to the ground;
  • it was situated in a changing room where children would be expected to be playing around;
  • benches in changing rooms should be secured and children should not expect a bench to suddenly move;
  • for these reasons, the bench presented a foreseeable source of danger to young children using the changing room.

After receiving a letter from our firm, the insurers of the hotel admitted liability. Our young client had suffered a crush fracture of his right little finger distal phalanx which required surgery and sadly the tip of his little finger later died and fell off leaving a shortened but healthy finger. There was no obvious cosmetic abnormality and his doctors believed that this injury would not trouble him greatly as he got older. He could still write, play sport and do his hobbies and fortunately there were no psychological issues. There was a small risk that he might require further surgery on his finger when he was much older.

After discussions with the insurers, we were able to agree upon a settlement figure for our client which was approved by the Judge at Swindon County Court.

S J Edney solicitors obtained compensation of £9,250 for this client during 2013