Travel companies risk underestimating the danger of personal injury to clients and their firm’s resulting liability, says a leading travel law expert.
And the liability will be extended if Europe widens the scope of the Package Travel Directive (PTD).
Professor David Grant told Travel Weekly: “The liability has been around for a long time. The danger, if you look at the case law, is the number of inadvertent actions that lead to catastrophic injuries.
“They are rare but they happen and the liability is there. If the European Commission widens the scope of the
PTD, other companies will be brought
into liability.”
The EC is poised to publish proposals for widening the directive, which are expected to extend liability to dynamic packages, including Flight-Plus bookings.
Grant, visiting professor of law at Leeds Metropolitan University and editor of the Travel Law Quarterly, will address a Vantage Insurance seminar on operators’ liability for injury at the end of January in London.
He warned: “You have companies that do all the right things, but a moment’s inadvertence can lead to injuries. We are not talking about accidents waiting to happen.”
Grant cited the case of Anderson v M&W Lyotier (2008) where a ski instructor, praised for his professionalism by the court, was found liable for serious injuries to a client
he took off piste.
Recent case law has extended companies’ liability to excursions, even where these were not sold as part of packages, but where the courts judged “holiday reps had given an implicit guarantee”.
Grant warned the recent Court of Appeal ruling in the Secret Hotels (Medhotels) case threatened a further extension of liability.
He said: “If a company is regarded as liable for VAT, they could be regarded as liable for an injury.”
Grant will explain the principles of liability under the existing regulations, and Alex Padfield, head of law firm Hextalls, will explain how to handle litigation.
The seminar on January 30 is free and aimed at non-lawyers.
To register, visit vantageinsurance.co.uk or call 020 7655 8000