A holidaymaker who suffered life-threatening cuts after walking into a plate glass door in her bikini has had a claim for damages against Virgin Holidays upheld.
Three Appeal Court judges ruled that Moira Japp was fully entitled to the £24,000 award for the accident at Crystal Cove Hotel in Barbados.
A Virgin Holidays spokesman said after the ruling: “Although we wish the appeal process could have been avoided for Mrs Japp, we wish to reiterate that for Virgin and the wider travel industry it was not about an unwillingness to pay her damages. Indeed, we wish her well.
“The main reason for the appeal concerned the first Judge’s decision in the original trial that the date upon which the suitability of the glass should be judged against Barbados standards was the date of the accident – rather than the date that the hotel installed the window.
“This was a critical issue to the holiday industry, and we’re very pleased that the Court of Appeal agreed with us and we were successful in overturning this point.
“As we have now returned to the previously understood state of law in this area, Mrs Japp’s ruling will not have any wider implications across the UK industry.”
Industry sources said it was misleading to suggest it was the claim for damages itself that had implications for the trade, or it was that the operator was appealing against.
What would have had implications for the industry was if the court had upheld the original ruling at Brighton County Court last October, which would have required the industry to be liable for the standards of works on buildings at the time of the accident, rather than when they were built.