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Small claims court - have I got a case?


Captain Colonial

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Briefly, here's the story:
 
1) Hazel goes to a pub for lunch with a friend on 10/3 and accidentally leaves her coat behind.  A few hours later, the pub calls her and says they have her coat (she didn't even realise it was missing).  As we were going there again on the 21st for dinner, they agreed to hold on to it until then in their office, kept in a labelled envelope.

 

2) When we go on the 21st for dinner, they can't find the coat in the office, but say they will look again and call us back  within a few days.

 

3) By 4/4, there's no answer so I go to the pub and ask again.  They still haven't found it, but say the girl who found it quit working there recently.  They promised to contact the girl and ask her, and contact us back one way or the other.

 

4) No answer by today so I call.  They haven't found it.  No apologies, no clues, no jacket, not interested.

 

They are now claiming it was lost property and they are not responsible.  My argument is that it was lost but when they found it and contacted her, it ceased to be lost property and became found property with an identified owner, and they entered a verbal contract of care when they said they would keep it safe in their office.  Somehow they have misplaced it, lost it, disposed of it, gave it to someone else, or an employee took it.

 

My position now is that I have written them a recorded letter to that effect and demanding compensation. The coat was £100 when new, and as the jacket was no longer new, I am demanding £50 as a fair market value or I will resort to the small claims court - I certainly don't want £50 in credit at the pub as I wouldn't trust anything that came out of the kitchen not to have been spat in - or worse.  I have given evidence of the new value from a current advert.

 

Do I have a case?  Am I being unreasonable here?

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Scott,

 

My thought are you should have a good case against them and I would probably asked for more than £50 for a start as you could always come down.  I would send them a letter and then after a few days go back to the pub and see if they have got it.  That way it will show that your not going to give up without a fight.

 

The other thing I could see being a problem is that it might turn out that it's your word against them...

 

I would give it a good go...

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Sounds like a reasonable approach Scott. I think the threat of Small claims court should produce a fair settlement otherwise go to court.

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A shame that they were pro-active in advising you that they found the coat and then were remiss in keeping hold of it. I am certain you have a case. Good luck!

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It'll cost them more than £50 to fight it, so I'd be surprised if they don't pay up.

 

:getmecoat:

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The court fees (recoverable) are £35 or £25 online, and more if it goes to a hearing.

 

They were holding property which they've lost.  Simple.

 

But if I were them I'd say it was a different coat :cry:

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On the flip side holding the coat was a goodwill gesture, they've could have binned it.

Is it worth the bad karma for £50?

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On the flip side holding the coat was a goodwill gesture, they've could have binned it.

Is it worth the bad karma for £50?

This  :t-up:

 

take a deep breath she lost her coat put down to life experience  :down:

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+1 sorry. Seems thier being punished for at least initially doing the right thing. You decided to make them hold it as it suited you - Sorry.

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Sorry Adrian no, they offered to hold it safe until we returned 11 days later for another meal so we didn't have to make a 20 mile round trip.

 

If I found one of my customers personal property and then lost it, I'd at a minimum say sorry!

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Only my opinion, but this sounds very like the Litigatious culture that's killing this country! If you forget your coat its your fault so why blame the pub? It may make you a little more careful in the future?

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Can you demonstrate negligence on their part whist the coat was in their posession and therefore failure in the businesses obligations and duty of care?

If the the business have taken reasonable steps to hold it for you for a period of time but in the interim another customer/staff member /bin man has mistakenly taken it have the restaurant been negligent whist looking after your property? and as such would the court agree with your claim that you should you be compensated for your economic loss?

How far does duty of care extend when looking after a customers coat? Is it reasonable that it is left on a coat hook in the staff room or should it have been held somewhere more secure?

Edit to add: it's also worth reading up on the legal obligations with regard to involuntary bailment.

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The fact that they tried to do the right thing in the first place and now they're being punished for it, I would just put it down to a bad experience. I would say writing a formal letter is a little petty. It depends how much time and money you wish to spend on such a small victory. If it was me, I would just not eat there again.

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One thing to consider when making small claims is the value of the total claim. I successfully claimed when we purchased a laptop for my son (not an expensive one) which never worked correctly from day one. They effectively ignored the process, the killer issue we only realized after we won and nothing happen was that as the figure was less than £600 there was nothing else we could do to chase the money. 

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