Excel lose in court after they had 'won' at POPLA!

Coupon-mad

''Rob Greenwood, 55, of Almondbury, was returning a shelf to B&Q, Leeds Road Retail Park..
Mr Greenwood, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1984, had parked in a disabled bay outside the store – but had forgotten to display his blue badge.''

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/almondbury-ms-man-third-disabled-4934750

Outcome today in Court, I bet Simon Renshaw-Smith is spitting feathers as they will have thought their POPLA win was going to be a shoo-in at Court!

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=79002

Read the whole thread. You will be astonished by what the POPLA assessor said when dismissing the disabled driver's appeal (which was not forum assisted, but of course the court defence was).

I think this is the first case lost at POPLA and then WON where it matters, in small claims. The judge even agreed that Mr G might have had a case for a counter claim...dare I admit I had told him that when advising him; I was convinced he should counter claim but he did brilliantly even without that aspect and was unrepresented. I didn't write his defence by the way - another pepipoo member did - but I added the Equality Act 2010 stuff to it and gave him the info he needed about disability law. I was really crossing my fingers for him today!

I also think he could get this in the national papers if he wanted.

HO87

Thanks C_M. Another sterling job :beer:

The important element here is that the judge ruled that not displaying the BB should have been viewed as a "reasonable adjustment".

Better still, this is likely to have really p*ssed off SR-S. Sour milk and sackcloth in Barlow tonight then. Undoubtedly another judge off his Christmas card list, like HHJ McIlwaine at Scun thorpe. In celebration of this I've changed my avatar to guess who?

Coupon-mad

Love that avatar.

I have asked grunwald to let us know the Court case number and which court so we can cite this decision. Can be used in POPLA appeals and defences. It may even be that we can raise enough to get the transcript if someone on pepipoo knows how to go about it.

HO87

Thanks - been trying to find a more up to date one, but it'll do. The simplest way would be to arrange it through grunwald - we just pass him the money.

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

Really pleased. Fallen of your horse Simon?

A counter claim would hve done for him!

MothballsWallet

Wouldn't a B&Q customer car park be on private land so you don't have to display a Blue Badge anyway and would be covered by the Equality Act 2010?

esmerobbo

Well done to Rob Greenwood and well done to C-M for her great help to him and countless others.

Coupon-mad

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Wouldn't a B&Q customer car park be on private land so you don't have to display a Blue Badge anyway and would be covered by the Equality Act 2010?

Yes that's true - but if a PPC chooses to make a BB a condition of a contractual term then POPLA (and a judge) will pay attention to that contract (unfortunately). Then it takes a great deal of explanation by the appellant to make it clear why that would actually be discrimination. The Equality Act 2010 is very long, detailed and isn't widely understood, even though service providers (and that includes POPLA and PPCs) have to abide by it.

Hence why grunwald lost at POPLA - his POPLA appeal being a little short on detail I think, and not forum-aided. Having said that, he had told Shona enough about 'his MS causing forgetfulness' for her to have realised - if she'd known ANYTHING about disability law - that to find against him was discriminatory!

When he got to pepipoo, once he got court papers from Excel, grunwald had a regular member write him a skeleton defence and I added the info about the Equality Act - and grunwald has been terrific, showing the judge he never drove past any sign he could have seen from the car, and steering the judge to see that a reasonable adjustment should, of course, have been made.

This is a case to cite in POPLA appeals and defences where the appellant is disabled, and was disadvantaged as a result.

spacey2012

That is two county court cases slung out by judges in a week.

trisontana

spacey2012 wrote: »

That is two county court cases slung out by judges in a week.

I doubt that PPCs will be citing these cases in the threatening letters they send out to motorists.

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

trisontana wrote: »

I doubt that PPCs will be citing these cases in the threatening letters they send out to motorists.

shocked you can be so cynical !!