Germany: Tour Operator liable for thrown shoes

Plaintiff claimed for damages suffered from an accident which occurred when she attended an evening acitivity at the holiday club where she spent her holidays on a package tour. As part of a game the presenter of the evening perfomance had told a child on the stage: “I bet your mum won’t be able to collect 60 different shoes within two minutes” when people in the audience began to throw over their shoes to the stage. One stiletto-heeled shoe hit plaintiff who was sitting in the first row at the back of her head.German Supreme Court (BGH) in a decision of 12. June 2007 held that the tour operator was liable as the accident constituted a defect of the performance of his contractual obligations because the presenter of the show acting as auxiliary person of the tour operator when offering the bet could have foreseen that some people might throw shoes to the stage and had failed to enjoin the audience from doing so.Source: BGH press release 82/2007.

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