Trespasser Wins Damages For 2am Fall At Carlisle Castle, Lawyers Rejoice
ENGLISH Heritage, owners of Carlisle Castle, paid over £50,000 in legal costs and damages to a woman “trespasser” who was injured as she fell into the moat at 2am.
The woman got an out-of-court compensation settlement of £15,000. English Heritage paid her legal fees of £37,250. Lawyers are part of our fine heritage, readers.
Better to settle straight away, eh, before the sharks move in? English Heritage says of the 2am visitor:
“On doing so, she would have passed signage stating opening hours for visitors to the castle – 1 October to 31 March, 10am to 4pm as well as a notice stating: ‘Please take care as historic sites can be hazardous.”
Seems pretty clear. Was the sign lit up?
“As such, the claimant can have been in no doubt that she was not entitled to enter the Castle and was therefore trespassing. It is understood that the claimant fell from the half moon battery.”
English Heritage goes on to say how sorry it is and health and safety is really important in ruins of old castles, that the portcullis is made of rubber, the moat drained and manned by a lifeguard and all rough edges removed form implement of maiming and killing.
The pick of the bunch in other claims and awards revealed in the survey is that at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where a man received £400 after he put his thumb into hot soup in the museum restaurant.
Indeed, these things should be collated and put in a museum of law…
Posted: 28th, April 2010 | In: Strange But True Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
