Hi guys

Just got out of hospital and been adviced by the Dr to do one of those where there is a blaim there is a claim things (never done on before)

Basically I was delivery some leaflets for a friend as a favour, as I was walkin back down the drive way of a house i stood on a man hole cover which flipped and i ended up down the hole with a broken arm and broken leg and other minor injurys.

I was wondering if these things are worth doing, and who would be to blame?  its a brand new house so i would persume its the builder for fitting it incorectly?

Advised by the doctor, or an "ambulance chaser" at the hospital?

If you were on the property uninvited, I doubt that you would have a claim against the householder.  So who would you sue?  Your friend?

Golly I hate those no fee compensation adverts! :(

I wonder if the owner of the house could sue you for damage to private property.  I am guessing you were on the property uninvited?

I did not think Doctors were allowed to give such advice.

yeah was definatley the doctor.  He said it was suprising how many people he sees with accidents involving a man hole.  He even told me of a person he treated who won alot of damamges through one of these, after he was burguling a house and fell through a glass plane and sued the house hold for something and won even though he was burguling their house!

I think its really quite sad when a person feels they are 'entitled' to compensation for not watching where they were walking.. especially on someone elses property...

Some poor unsuspecting innocent person will now have to suffer for the stupidity of others :(

Pray it never happens to you

And it puts the insurance premiums up for the rest of us poor suckers who don't even think of claiming if we've tripped over our own two feet because we're not looking where we are going!

as I was walkin back down the drive way of a house i stood on a man hole cover which flipped and i ended up down the hole with a broken arm and broken leg and other minor injurys.


I do agree with many posters that this sue for every accident is appauling and it gets on my nerves as much as anyone elses and it does cause all our premiums to keep going up, most of these cases are pathetic, but I don't feel this one is.

Man holes are not supposed to flip, if it were a piece of pavement I might be inclined to feel it's just bad luck, but this could have happend to the postman, the gas, electric man a private delivery van or anyone walking over that man hole invited or not, hopefully the householder does not have a small child.

I know even when I lived on a new private estate, the drive, paving and the water grates were all the responsibility of the house owner to keep in order and pay for servicing privately, but I'm not sure about man holes I think they are still owned by the water boards/council and maintained by them and they have a right to come onto our properties to get to them too. But we are supposed to call them if there is damage to them.

To be honest if this is a new estate and still in the process of building why not phone the sales office, they should be able to tell you who is responsible for it and has left it unsafe like this, there should have been a warning around it.

Unlike many accident claims, this wasn't really just an accident but caused by something being unsafe and faulty.

But, I do kind of hope the new house owner is not responsible here, sorry that you have been so badly hurt and hope that you are fully recovered soon.

can i just say, the accident was no fault of my own! I was watching where I was going however when i steped on it walking down the drive it flipped.  I could understand your rude reply if i had off been walking along and not seen a hole in the ground!

Cant offer advice, as I dont know, but I just wanted to say I hope you make a speedy recovery. 

Blimey you do seem to have an accident prone and eventful life and only come on here when things happen to you but never seem to join in with anybody elses problems or questions?   How are your problems post your riding accident ? I would be very careful trying to take this one to court considering your other problems.  So how do you look after your dogs considering your problems as it must be very difficult considering the size of one of them ? :-)

> How are your problems post your riding accident

Golly - I had forgotten about that - I hope that it wasn't your bad arm that you broke :(

Daisy

Thompson - from your other post, where you are asking advice about an i-pod for your car - I do hope that you aren't driving ....is your partner or your nephew able to drive you around?    Please do not attempt driving with a broken leg - not only is it dangerous to yourself, if you should be involved in even the slightest accident, you would find your insurance to be invalid!

Didn't the doctor (who advised you to go for compensation) warn you about not driving???

> as I was walkin back down the drive way of a house i stood on a man hole cover which flipped and i ended up down the hole with a broken arm and broken leg and other minor injurys.
>

I would just think myself extremely lucky.  And be glad to be alive.

While visiting someone at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Injurieds Unit at Odstock, I saw a guy who had had  a similar accident.

Unfortunately, great as the Unit is, and I can't praise it enough, there are some injuries that can't be helped.  This particular guy, when falling down a manhole, broke cervical vertebra.  Not only will he never walk again.  He is paralysed from the neck down and can't feed himself.  And never will.

Now, doesn't that put things into perspective?

I have to say the sue everything industry does get on my nerves.  After losing a brother when the doctor told my parents that there was nothing wrong with him and words that weren't so nice, it does annoy me that nowadays everyone seems to want to sue.  What has happened to the world of accidents?

Must admit though in many ways someone should answer for this but I do feel extremely sorry for the poor householder also.

Hope you mend quickly.

Here in lies the reason for such high household insurance, manhole covers on your property along with the drains, water pipes etc are your responsibility to keep in good order, water authorities have no responsibility before the main sewer or after the water connection to your house.

Blame culture gone mad sorry for your injuries but not sure I'd be sueing over them.

Anyone has the right to deliver a letter to any house without the fear of falling in a manhole. In a new house the builder is to blame.
It could have been a child coming to play and it could have been worse. Get in touch via a solicitor with the householder they will pass it to their insurer's and deal with it.
Blimy you lot, if anyone was delivereing to my house solicited or not I would not expect to have a man trap in my garden path.

I expect you will lose income ect and iot was not your fault go for it.

I am stunned at some of the very rude responses to the OP,
im sure some people would feel upset and want to claim some sort of compensation if it were their prize winning pooch that walked over a manhole that then flipped up on their dog breaking its legs,
my guess is that this thread would be full of well wishes if that had been the case,
hope you recover well  xx

Under the neighbour principle it doesn't matter whether you were invited on to the property or not. They have a duty of care, and even if a burglar enters your house and trips on a floor board and hurts himself he has the right to claim against you.

I myself hate the world for the claiming of accidents, after all that is what they are accidents! But in this case its negligence, it would be the same if stairs where fitted incorrectly, then collapsed and someone fell down them. You have sustained quite severe injuries, and I would look to take it further not just to recover your loses but to make sure this doesn't happen to someone else because of a lazy builder. 

But I think the adverts for these things are terrible, as if you walk into an open drawer that's your own fault or you lift a box that was too heavy for you even though you have been trained on correct box lifting procedures. People don't understand that in the eyes of the law you also have a duty of care to look after yourself, you cant expect not to get burnt if you touch a fire.

Thanks guys for your messages, I infact was taken to the womens house this morning as I was worried after being told by a freind that she had little children.  As it happens the women was over the moon that I had gone to see her, as it happens the smae thing happened to her last week! however she stood on it and tripped over it injuring her finger.  She reported to the builder who just put the lid back on and said that will have to do!  Where now both going to see a soliciotr together as this should never happended once never mind twice!

I am only seeking a claim as I am self employed and will loose income etc and for other reasons.  I would not normally do this sort of thing, as as the above says if it was the fact i had done something stupid like lifting a heavy box at work etc or walking into a draw i can understand people getting upset but not when its a terrible accident with extreme outcomes.  Thanks guys x

I might get shot down in flames but here it goes.. Whatever happened to common sense? I am sick and tired of people suing each other. I've had quite a few accidents involving animals for example, and not always my own, I hasten to add. It never ever crossed my mind to sue the owner of a dog or horse. I think we live in a sad sad world.

I do kind of agree that there seems to be, to coin a phrase, a 'blame culture' arising and growing these days.

However, thinking of it from my husband's perspective, who is a telecomms engineer, who constantly had to visit people's homes when working in the UK, etc.
The amount of time he's had near misses, particularly from something like loose man hole covers and so on, through no fault of his own, is quite staggering really.
He had no choice but to enter people's properties, it's his job.  So if something like that happened to him and he was unable to work, I'm sure I'd be pretty miffed too.  However, I'm also fairly sure he wouldn't claim for compensation, but I think his employer might have! lol

No laughing matter though of course.
Out here in Australia things are slightly different.  You must have or your employer must have workers compensation insurance, so that if something like the above does arise, you're covered.  (I would imagine it's similar to personal accident/injury insurance, though I'm fairly sure you have to have that as a separate insurance too).
A friend of ours out here was quite severely bitten around the face and neck by a dog after entering a property where the owner had assured him the dog was 'ok' with people.  He did not sue, and he did not pursue any other action.   Lucky for the dog owner, not so lucky for our friends face.

Agree with you otterhound.  I had a fall at work just after New Year.  The emergency department at hospital sent me home.  I told them I had broken my wrist, but silly me thought I would see a doctor at A&E but I didn't.  Just a nurse.

I went to see my own doc every week for a month, in excruciating pain, to be told YOU MUST USE IT!!!

Which I did.  Carrying heavy shopping, sacks of dog food etc.  In the end, I was demented with pain, and went to see a physio.  To be told - I can't treat you, your wrist is broken!  This time A&E agreed!  The X-ray looked like I'd been through a cheese grater.  By this time I had RSD.

I don't think I will ever be able to turn my hand over again, I've lost the rotation.  I went back to work in August (had to as work had stopped paying me the month before.)  I get by with morphine etc.  And the pain has reduced.  But I can't turn the key in the front door and daft things like that.

I've never tried to sue anybody.

yeah what ever happened to commen sense i mean we all walk round the man hole covers  dont we JUST in case some lazy *rse workmen didnt put it on properley and we fall down it,
i mean plz we can all have accidents some in fact most will be our own silly fault and hopefully not to serious but then their are those that are caused by someone elses neglect,
so if an electrition came into your house to fix some wiring and  he dint do it right and you were elecrtcuted leaving you with serious injurys, or a roofer comes to replace tiles on your roof but does not do it right and a slab falls and lands on your head leaving you brain damaged do you then say its ok was just a accident?

i think if the injurys are bad enough and someone else  was at fault then surley theirs a case for compensation from who ever didnt do the job right,
sadly their will always be those who try to rip the butt out of it by claiming for an injury that infact is not as bad as they say these are the people who should be looked at carfully,
i once had a white van man who owned his own bussiness drive into the door of my car  as i was getting out of my car he was well behind my parked car and their was plenty of room for him to pass but he didnt look or see me getting out and the top corner of my door got caught on the metal bar sticking out around his wind mirror, he almost took my door off while i was screaming at him to stop he eventully heard me but had damaged my door so badly it would no longer close, he then had the cheak to come to me took my details and told me with a grin "well you opened thedoor love" he pursed me thu court for £3000 damage to his van even claiming for things on the otherside of the van when infact their was no damage to his van at all i snapped pics on my phone on that day as i new he was going to try to fleece me by his cocky attitude and i fought him in court and i won my case,  the funniest thing was that after the  case was oer on leaving the court i see him going to his van while i ws at the bus stop and he had been clamped lol now thats karma and justice all wrapped up in one lol,

I dont like this 'sue for everything' culture we now seem to have..

On the other hand, if the accident means you do lose out on earnings./ day to day life costs you more as a result.... mm

It seems in this case that the property owner WAS aware (since shed tripped/fallen over it herself previously) that there was an issue and the inspection chamber lid was not safe to walk on.... and she did not rectify that immediately/put some form of warning on it.. so your claim would be against HER, she would then have to claim from the builder, maybe?

Buuuuuut... has common sense breathed its last?... I never walk on manhole covers if i can avoid it, im not paranoid (well not about that) but common sense tells me, theres the option of solid ground, or a metal cover over a potentially deep hole which may or may not be safe to walk on. I go for the solid ground every time!

> I never walk on manhole covers if i can avoid it, im not paranoid (well not about that) but common sense tells me, theres the option of solid ground, or a metal cover over a potentially deep hole which may or may not be safe to walk on. I go for the solid ground every time!

I too would avoid walking on a manhole cover, just in case, but I am slighty obsesive/ compulsive so it is in my nature to do so.

However, surely their whole purpose is to avoid people falling down and hurting themselves and if that is their purpose that is what they should do.  The OP has sustained some life affecting injuries where even getting around and day to day activities will be difficult.  The cover needs to be fixed as a first priority as a child could easily run over it without a second thought.

Should the OP sue...........I hate all those comp ads on the telly, however, I am employed and would not suffer any financial loss.   If I even lost a month of income it would cause me significant stress.

The op must make up their own mind on this and I wish them a speedy recovery in the meantime.

> I am stunned at some of the very rude responses to the OP,
> im sure some people would feel upset and want to claim some sort of compensation if it were their prize winning pooch that walked over a manhole that then flipped up on their dog breaking its legs,
> my guess is that this thread would be full of well wishes if that had been the case,
> hope you recover well  xx

Well said Chelzeagirl!!!

I too am very stunned at some of the reponses on this topic. 

Wishing the OP a speedy recovery. 

JeanSW your story sounds a bit like me although I'm hoping it's not!

I've been unable to walk properly for 5 months now.  Started firstly being unable to weight bear on my right leg as had a painful ankle and lower leg. Week later severe pain in the upper leg and no feeling in the lower leg.  Been to physio for a while now and had a MRI on my back which showed I had a slightly bulging L5 disc on my S1 nerve.

Went to physion last week and now due to my severe pain starting again in my right ankle and foot and it being swollen they now feel that the back problem isn't the cause and maybe I have done something to my ankle.

Now I've got another weeks wait until I see a GP, with a painful swollen ankle!  Though I may go to Casualty, but there again I've been walking on it for 5 months so can't see another week being any more of a pain!