Compensation culture
On the train last night I read an article that annoyed me. A lot of things annoy me, we know this.
I am unable to find a link to it on the London Lite site, but it has been covered by the BBC, as well as by the Daily Mail.
So, the summary goes like this: “highly intelligent” postgrad gets bladdered for her 24th birthday (ok, nothing too unusual here so far). In her wisdom, she (along with friends) climbs onto the roof of the flat she rents in Angel, London, and manages to fall through a skylight into the garage next door, suffering “horrific injuries”. Seeing an opportunity to squeeze money out of others thanks to the compensation culture that Britain has embraced today, she decides to sue the property landlords.
Ms Mayers argued (according to the Daily Mail from which I took this quote): “that the Patels should have warned her about the dangers of going on to the roof, and had failed to properly protect the skylight.”
What the fuck?! She was studying for a Masters at the time at UCL, a respected institution! She has been described by the judge as “highly intelligent”. How can she honestly think that a bright young woman like herself needed to be told “the roof is a dangerous place to be, especially when pissed”!? If she were a seven-year old then perhaps that might stand up. But she isn’t seven. She was 24 at the time. She is 29 now. For crying out loud. When will people take responsiblity for their actions?
Why should the landlords have taken measures to “properly protect the skylight”?! Why the fuck would they ever forsee that a dumb bitch would go running over the roof out of her head of wine and vodka jelly?
Some landlords are unscrupulous bastards. Some are decent sorts. Whichever category these particular landlords fall into is neither here nor there. Some tenants are great. Some tenants are arseholes. Some, like this fool, may be “highly intelligent” but are sorely lacking in common sense.
Good job that this got thrown out. While I feel sorry for her in that she sustained some major injuries, it was her own bloody fault. She was wrong to try and squeeze money out of other people because of an action that she has lived to regret. Firstly, she should be grateful that she lived. Secondly, does anyone else think that she looks staggeringly like Heather McCartney-Mills? These two money-grabbing bitches are similar in more than one way it would appear.
Anyway, I must dash, I am going to find someone to sue for something that is my own fault. I haven’t worked out what yet; I am also going to warm Ms Mayer’s bottle for her 11am feed…
Filed under: Celebs, London, current affairs, news, rants | 11 Comments
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I’m with you. It’s entirely her own fault, she’s an adult and it’s her responsibility to not go out on the roof when pissed. Or at all, come to that. I’m relieved that our courts (unlike in the US) have had the sense to tell her where to go.
As you say- she’s intelligent enough to get to UCL, she should be intelligent enough to know that pissed on a rooftop is a bad place to be.
Right on the money again, Soupy. You’re becoming a vertiable social commentator, eh!
Oh my gosh. So her fault.!!! some peole *sigh*
I read about this online this morning and thought the same, but sadly I think it is symptomatic of how this country is / will eventually get.
When I was recooperating after my knee surgery I had the misfortune to watch some day time TV. What shocked me were the adverts were mainly for three things, encouraging people to borrow money secured against their house, encouraging them to use an IVA to write off that money because they were overstretched, and then encouraging people to use specialist legal firms to sue for accidents they’d had.
Five or six years ago I was involved in quite a bad car crash where I was hit by some kid who’d just passed his test who bounced me into some armco on a dual carriageway. Luckily I managed to walk away from it, and the response from the myriad of ambulance chasing lowlifes who wanted me to use them was incredible. Some of them said that because I wasn’t hurt didn’t mean I shouldn’t seek damages. The whole thing sickened me to the bone.
Common sense is not so common afterall!
And this compensation culture is sickening!
I do wonder if, in todays culture, I could take M&S to court over thier Hot Cross Buns. They are patently not hot and are, at best, room temperature. The things you think of while queing to buy your meal for one
Of course it does mean that in the paperwork for my new house it clearly spells out that any tools, machinery or other stuff I see when veiwing the house prior to it being built is not included in the purchase because [apprently] people might claim they saw a JCB in their parking space when they signed the contract and thought that was part of the deal!
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I read that too. I think I’m going to set my Metro alight, and try to eat it.
And then sue the metro for not putting a disclaimer on it telling me not to set my Metro alight, and try to eat it.
Ah, I love you guys. You sometimes make me laugh so hard. Elsewhere I am stressed out, but here I am just shaking my head in that “oh god, he didn’t just say that?” way and chuckling.
THANK YOU!!!
It’s like that woman who spilled coffee on herself and then sued and won millions (in the states, of course).
People like this should be sterilized to save us all from their potential offspring.
I hate that Canada is slowly becoming more like this as well.
I couldn’t believe this story when I first read it. I thought I was hallucinating after eating the chocolate out of the vending machine, on the Eastbound platform, anyways, I digress…
The fact that this might result in a change in the law……..the World has gone mad.
First thing I noticed, was………YES!!!!!!!….she does look like Heather McCartney, but this nobody is [I think anyway] a bit better looking.