UK Ferry Tickets

A recent tragic court case has opened the debate about how much travel companies should be responsible for their clients while they are abroad.

Sean Healy was left paralysed after a swimming pool accident in Portugal and tried to sue tour operator Cosmos for £3.5 million damages. Mr Healy admitted to having had a couple of drinks before the accident, but was not drunk. He may have slipped on the side of the pool or he may have dived, depending on whom you believe.

Whatever happened on that fateful day three years ago, Mr Healy was dreadfully unlucky. Most of us have slipped, fallen or generally larked around swimming pools while abroad.

But were Mr Healy’s injuries the fault of the travel company? Not according to Mr Justice Eady who, in the High Court, ruled that it was a tragic accident for which nobody was responsible.

This is a very important decision, because it is likely to set some sort of precedent for the future. Until recently, tour operators have been successfully sued by clients for any number of injuries sustained abroad, regardless of whether they could realistically have done anything to protect the individuals involved.

Courts have viewed such cases as a David v Goliath battle and there was seldom much sympathy for the big, bad travel companies.

But now it seems the courts are clamping down on the compensation culture that we have inherited from the US, whereby everyone is encouraged to blame someone else for their own misfortunes.

Surely, this is commonsense. Millions of people go abroad every year and a good percentage of them let their hair down, drink more than is good for them and behave differently than they would at home. There are bound to be some accidents.

If a tour operator sends you to, for example, a faulty or dangerous apartment then there is a case for action against them. But if you have an accident in an apartment, hotel or pool that passes safety standards then how can the operator be to blame and why should it pay out a fortune in compensation?

Guest Article by

Jeremy Skidmore

Wednesday, August 31st, 2005