A woman is suing a London pub for £4.2m after tripping over a rope in its beer garden.
HR consultant Carmen Mazo fractured her wrist in the 2009 fall outside Notting Hill gastropub The Westbourne, which is run by artist Sebastian Boyle. She says the incident left her with prominent scars and post-traumatic arthritis.
Mazo claims she would have expected to be earning £700 a day by now if it were not for the accident. She alleges the incident had a devastating impact on her life and destroyed her career.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
In 2013, a county court awarded her £156,871 after the pub's operators admitted liability for the accident. But Mazo believes that sum is a mere fraction of what she deserves and is appealing for a higher payout.
"My career has always been my refuge to block away unpleasant circumstances in my personal life, but now I am finding that because of a bartender's irresponsibility I could end up with no career or purpose in life," she told the Daily Telegraph.
Following the accident, Mazo was off work for several months and returned only to give up for good three years later.
"My mood changes are like a rollercoaster, changing from anger to sadness in seconds. The accident has totally destroyed my work and social life, changing me such that I do not think that I will ever be my old self again," she said.
At the county court hearing, judge Heather Baucher ruled the injury was not bad enough to justify Mazo giving up work and rejected her claim for more than £4.2m.
However, Lord Justice Laws has granted Mazo permission to take the case to the appeal court, saying it was arguable that Baucher was wrong.
"It seems to me that she is entitled to have the matter examined in this court," he said.
