Going to the toilet is usually a hassle-free experience for those of us who avoid eating vindaloo on an all too regular basis. Many people even choose to use their time on the bog to indulge in a spot of reading or gain a few more stars on the popular mobile game Angry Birds. For some though, going for a number one and/or two has proven to be a less than simple act and has resulted in claims for compensation being made. Here are just a handful of toilet-related compensation stories which have hit the headlines over the last decade:
Festive Bog Lock-In Drives Man Round U-Bend
December 2010 saw a jogger spend 17 hours trapped inside a block of public toilets after an attendant locked them at 4:30 pm on Christmas Eve without first checking that no one was inside. The unnamed man was finally released at 9:30 am on Christmas Day but his ordeal meant that he missed out on unwrapping gifts with his family. Southwark council – who stated that the incident was the first time anyone had ever been locked inside any of their public loos – volunteered to pay the man £500 compensation to prevent him from making an in-court accident claim. Since the man was forced to wrap himself in a bin liner and toilet roll and sit beneath a hand dryer to keep himself warm (an act which was caught on CCTV footage), it is quite likely that the man would have received a bigger flush of cash should he have sued.
Flush Your Mouth Out With Soap
A 33-year-old American woman who was overheard swearing at her lavatory was rewarded $19,000 in the year 2007. The woman – Dawn Herb – went to go for a tinkle and discovered that her loo was overflowing and shouted several profanities in reaction to the situation. Herb’s next-door neighbor – an off-duty police officer – heard her outburst and immediately called the authorities who came and arrested her for disorderly conduct. This saw the mother of four facing the possibility of a 90-day-duration jail sentence. The officer must have looked rather foolish when the judge determined that the woman had done nothing wrong; declaring that swearing is not illegal and that the words uttered from her potty mouth qualified as constitutionally protected free speech.
Toilet Roll Leaves Council Bummed Out
Back in 2002, West Somerset District Council successfully sued their toilet roll supplier after many members of the public complained that they were “caught short” for toilet roll at its various public lavatories. The council had a contractual agreement with Allscan LTD, who had agreed to provide 40,000 rolls per year (for a duration of two), each containing 320 sheets of paper. When it was brought to the council’s attention that its toilet roll supplies were diminishing more quickly than usual, an employee decided to manually count the sheets included in several of the rolls. It was discovered that only 200 sheets were comprised into each. A few simple calculations showed that the council was loo-sing out on almost five million sheets each year, which equated to 15,000 rolls of an approximate £2,800 value. Allscan refused to make up the difference and so the council sought legal advice and was eventually rewarded around £18,000 for its compensation claim.
Loo Cracks under Hefty Rear
Earlier this month, an obese female Birmingham council worker thought she had been dealt a bum deal when she visited a toilet to “lighten the load” and it collapsed beneath her weight. Rather than hiding the embarrassing incident, the woman made a successful accident claim against the council and was awarded a payout of £1,750. The unnamed woman’s claim is just one of 274 made by the council’s members of staff in the last five years resulting in payouts totally more than 4.9 million pounds.
Toilet Trip Leaves School Teacher in Daze
An unnamed teacher was awarded almost £60,000 by Warwickshire County Council in September this year as a result of her slipping on a wet toilet floor at the school in which she worked. The female teacher’s fall saw her sustain severe injuries to her back and neck.
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