On this day in Yorkshire

Scalded in hotel: £219 damages for Leeds woman

March 9, 1945

In the Civil Court at the Assizes in Leeds yesterday Mr Justice Oliver gave judgment for £219 4s damages and costs in favour of Joan Victoria Crowther (21), of Scott Hall Road. Leeds, a typist employed in Government service at Harrogate, in a claim for personal injuries against the LMS Railway Co.

Miss Crowther was severely scalded when the contents of a tea-tray were upset on to her lap as she was having afternoon tea with her mother and a woman friend at the Queen’s Hotel, Leeds.

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For the company, who denied negligence, it was alleged that Mrs Crowther burnt the waiter’s hand with a cigarette, thereby causing the accident.

The Judge held that the accident was entirely the waiter’s fault. It had to be remembered, he said, that the homely pot of tea and jug of hot water were extremely dangerous things and had to be handled with a high degree of care.

The waiter, to save himself two steps and possibly to move a chair, elected to serve another customer at the table by leaning across Mrs Crowther and her daughter, balancing the tray with its highly dangerous contents on his left hand while he cleared a space at the table with his other hand.

He had no doubt that the waiter’s right hand came into contact with Mrs Crowther’s cigarette, said the Judge, but he believed her evidence that that was not because of anything she did. The waiter had no one but himself to blame for what happened, and the accident was an unfortunate result of a small piece of carelessness.

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Miss Crowther was very badly scalded, the Judge added. Scars were caused which at one time threatened to be a very serious blemish and gave great deal of trouble. Very fortunately for her, she was now no worse for the accident, but she had had a very bad time.

For the plaintiff: Mr R Cieworth (Dibb, Lupton and Co, Leeds). For the Railway Co: Mr Myles Archibald (Alexander Eddy, Manchester).

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