BA pays £130k to businessman who slipped on spilt Baileys at airport
A COMPANY boss has won a £130,000 payout from British Airways after slipping on a Baileys liqueur which had been spilt by another airport passenger.
Andreas Wuchner was checking in for a flight when he fell and injured his head at Heathrow three years ago.
The businessman’s company folded ten months later, after which he sued BA over his injuries and for loss of earnings.
A judge has now awarded the Swiss national an automatic £130,000 payout under an international convention governing space operated by airlines.
But he also opened the door to Mr Wuchner claiming considerably more if it can be proved that BA staff were negligent in failing to spot and clear up the spill.
Natasha Jackson, representing Mr Wuchner, told judge Simon Monty QC that her client had suffered ‘some traumatic brain injury’ as a result of the fall in November 2017.
‘My unfortunate client slipped and fell on liquid on the floor while embarking at Heathrow,’ she said.
‘The liquid turned out to be Baileys liqueur that hadn’t been cleared up.’
She added that the claim had been admitted, with Mr Wuchner therefore entitled to £130,000 under a ‘strict liability’ clause of the Montreal Convention, which governs international air travel.
Central London county court heard £130,000 is the normal limit for compensation under the convention, but if negligence on the part of BA staff were to be proved, ‘the limit can be exceeded’.
Miss Jackson told the judge that Mr Wuchner, who was boarding a flight to Zurich at the time of the accident, sought to press ahead with a larger claim, much of which ‘is a complicated loss of earnings claim’. The office supplies company which Mr Wuchner owned and ran was ‘liquidated’ in September 2018, ten months after the accident, she said.
She told the judge that her client wished to call an orthopaedic surgeon, a neurologist and a pain management expert to give evidence about the impact of the slip on his life.
Christopher Loxton, for BA, agreed Mr Wuchner should get the £130,000 payout, telling the judge: ‘I am happy for judgment to be entered for the claimant with damages to be assessed.’
But the airline is arguing there was no negligence from its staff and he should not receive additional damages.
A trial will decide if Mr Wuchner is due a bigger payout.
In August 2019 Carmelo Labbadia, 77, from Essex, was awarded £106,000 under the same convention, after an airport fall left him unable to maintain his classic car collection, which included a beloved Ferrari.
‘Traumatic brain injury’