Our client visited a take-away with some friends to buy some chips. The chip shop they usually went to was closed so they went to the take-away next door. Our client was told that she couldn’t buy chips on their own but would have to buy curry sauce, which was sold in polystyrene tubs, as well. Just outside the shop, one of our client’s friends took the lid off the tub so they could dip their chips in the sauce. However, the heat from the sauce came through the cup and started to burn the friend’s hand. He automatically dropped the tub. As it hit the ground, the curry sauce splashed up our client’s leg and scalded her badly.
The friends went back into the shop to tell staff what had happened. Staff gave them a dry paper towel to wipe the sauce off. The friends returned to the shop to ask for the towel to made wet or for some water as the sauce had been hot enough to scald our client’s leg. Staff refused and told the friends to go away.
They went straight to our client’s mother’s house nearby and she treated the burns appropriately. Seven days after the incident our client’s leg was still very red and sore, and scarred from burns. Fortunately the accident happened during the school holidays so our client was not forced to take time off school.
Lawson West began a personal injury claim for compensation for our client against the take-away. The accident was the take-away staffs’ fault because:-
· The curry sauce was sold at an excessive temperature.
· The shop staff failed to check the curry sauce before selling it.
· Staff failed to warn our client and her friends of the danger presented by excessively hot curry sauce, bearing in mind our client and her friends were children so would not have necessarily been aware that the sauce was hot enough to scald.
· Their response to the accident being reported was inadequate as they failed to offer appropriate first aid treatment or to call one of the client’s parents to help her.
· The staff also failed to record the incident.
The shop admitted liability and our client was awarded £1800 general damages in accident compensation for her scalding and the subsequent burns.
