{"id":4921,"date":"2018-11-29T20:54:59","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T20:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/squashed-passenger-loses-british-airways-court-fight\/"},"modified":"2018-11-29T20:54:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T20:54:59","slug":"squashed-passenger-loses-british-airways-court-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/squashed-passenger-loses-british-airways-court-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Squashed’ passenger loses British Airways court fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"StephenImage copyright<\/span>
\n Wales News Service<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
\n
\n Stephen Prosser lost his claim for damages and loss of earnings
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A man who sued British Airways for \u00a310,000 because he was “squashed” next to an obese passenger during a flight has lost his compensation battle.<\/p>\n

Stephen Prosser said he suffered a pelvic injury and nerve damage in his neck on the 13-hour journey from Bangkok to London in January 2016. <\/p>\n

The 51-year-old from Tonypandy in Rhondda Cynon Taff attempted to claim damages due to loss of earnings.<\/p>\n

Judge Andrew Barcello said Mr Prosser had created an “exaggerated picture”.<\/p>\n

‘Pure bulk’<\/h2>\n

Mr Prosser had previously told Pontypridd County Court<\/a> that he was “pinned against the side of the cabin” after a 23-stone (146kg) man “wedged” himself into the seat next to him.<\/p>\n

“I could feel the weight of his pure bulk putting lateral pressure on my upper body,” the father-of-two told the court. <\/p>\n

“This forced me to sit in a position of unnatural posture.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>

Image caption<\/span>
\n
\n Mr Prosser had said the passenger reminded him of Jonah Lomu
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Prosser – who is 5ft 3ins (160cm) and weighs 9st 12lbs (57kg) – initially complained to the airline by letter.<\/p>\n

He said that the passenger was so large he reminded him of the late New Zealand rugby star giant Jonah Lomu.<\/p>\n

The self-employed civil engineer, from Tonypandy, South Wales, told the court that his injuries stopped him working his normal hours. <\/p>\n

But district judge Andrew Barcello dismissed the claims, ruling that there appeared to be no “physical encroachment” from the passenger.<\/p>\n

He said Mr Prosser “may well have been of the impression that his space was being encroached upon” but he found that it was not.<\/p>\n

The judge suggested Mr Prosser’s physical injuries could have been caused by a pre-existing back injury or “reluctance to mobilise”.<\/p>\n

“In my view, his statements were intended to increase the size of the claimed encroachment and to create an exaggerated picture, rather than a genuine account,” he added.<\/p>\n

After the judgement, a British Airways spokesman said: “We are pleased that the court agreed that Mr Prosser had room to fly comfortably.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Wales News Service Image caption Stephen Prosser lost his claim for damages and loss of earnings A man who sued British Airways for \u00a310,000 because he was “squashed” next to an obese passenger during a flight has lost his compensation battle. Stephen Prosser said he suffered a pelvic injury and nerve damage in … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}