£38928 Awarded for Custard Slip

A surgeon who slipped on some spilt custard at the London hospital where he worked has been awarded £38,928 in the High Court. John Conti, 36, who suffered the accident in October 2000 at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, required reconstructive surgery on his knee. The judge partly accepted Mr Conti's argument that his career had been disrupted by the accident.

 

In 2004, liability had been agreed between St Mary's Hospital NHS Trust and the catering company, Sodexho Ltd. It was agreed that Mr Conti would only receive 40 per cent of his original claim because he could have exercised more care.

 

In the High Court, however, lawyers for Mr Conti argued that his career had also been set back four years by the injury. In this time he had hoped to progress through the surgical ranks as well as completing a PhD to increase his chances of becoming a consultant. The defence claimed that Mr Conti's knee problems were mostly the result of two other injuries he had suffered, one whilst playing volleyball and the second in a fall. The judge rejected both of these counter-arguments.

 

Judge Hegarty QC found that Mr Conti's career had actually been set back by approximately one year and the court awarded him loss of earnings for that period.