Taxi company cancelled wedding taxi

Okell

Emmia said:

Okell said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Alderbank said:

This sounds like a clear case where 'loss of enjoyment' would be absolutely a relevant head of claim.

I'm not so sure, the contract itself wasn't for enjoyment plus did the taxi company know it was a wedding. 

Another one for @A_Geordie ...

I suppose if I'd been the OP or his wife I'd have made damn' sure that the taxi company knew that it was a wedding.

And in that case I'd have thought "loss of enjoyment" would factor as a foreseeable outcome if the taxi company were in breach?

But did the OP and his wife to be emphasise this at the time? Did they get a written booking confirmation with all three journeys listed with phone number(s)

I can only say what I would have done - and I would have done all that.

DullGreyGuy

Okell said:

Covid_Vaccinator said:

Eventually, an admin member called my wife to advice that the admin who put in the booking had not updated her phone number for the 1st journey - instead, another person’s phone number was logged with the 1st (and most crucial) journey. Her number was correctly added to journey 2 and 3.

 

We were told that the taxi company had sent a reminder text message about the journey - the recipient called the taxi company and (correctly) stated they had not booked a taxi...

So in this case the taxi company linked the wrong phone number to the first journey and when they were told by that person that they had never ordered a taxi, the taxi company didn't bother to investigate it further, even though they had the correct numbers for for the second and third journeys.  That isn't reasonable care and skill.

This wasn't something outside the taxi company's control, it was a failure caused by their own negligence and their T&Cs can't exclude liability.

Realistically, what percentage of bookings have multiple legs on one day? 

I've never seen a taxi firms CMS, the only one I knew was a book with a page for each day's bookings, but I am not imagining something overly complex and there may be no way for it to link multiple bookings together. I'm not sure it's particularly realistic for them to have to search all other bookings to try and workout if any are linked or not. If they use the phone number as the primary detail of a booking then the search would have not identified the other two bookings as they were under a different number. 


Ultimately any compensation would have to be relevant to the losses actually sustained. The groom is likely to distant from the contract to have any claim and the only thing thats really been called out was being 25 minutes late. My wife was more than that late because of emergency roadworks that caused terrible traffic; it's just part of the joys of getting married. 

It would have been a different story if the wedding had to be cancelled because they were so late that the registrar wouldnt wait etc. 

A_Geordie

TLDR: On the face of it, I'm not convinced the OP (groom) or your wife have a claim for loss of enjoyment, maybe the grandmother at a stretch, but compensation would not be worth the time and hassle of going to court. Best suggestion is trying to agree a goodwill amount from the taxi co. 

This is just my opinion and I am sure others will have their own but I don't think going as far as starting legal proceedings is worth the hassle for what is likely to be a small amount of compensation. Though I could understand if the OP/Wife/Grandmother followed it through because of the nautre of the occasion. 

- - - -

OP (groom): You booked the taxis using your phone so the assumption being that you are the contracting party (if 3 separate bookings = 3 separate contracts) with the taxi company and your wife and grandmother are the beneficiaries. From what you've described and if I understand correctly, the taxi co. only cancelled the grandmother's taxi but the other two were available on time to collect your wife. I am presuming you arrived at the church on time so the taxi co. fulfiled their end of the bargain and therefore I can't see how you can claim a loss of enjoyment claim since the taxi co. delivered what they agreed to do.

Can you suffer a loss of enjoyment for a service where you are not the primary beneficiary but are indirectly affected by the breach? Maybe, but I personally think in this case it is too remote. 

Wife: Your wife wasn't party to the contract and so any claim would likely need to be made under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. Even if she can overcome that hurdle, There's a host of questions that make me sceptical your wife has a chance of recovering any compensation: 

(1) You say your wife was late by 25 minutes but I assume that was her own doing trying to organise new a new taxi for her grandmother. (i) Why was it necessary for her to arrange the taxi for her grandmother and cause herself to be late to the church? (ii) could your wife have delegated that task to someone else or could she not try to make arrangements on the way to the church to avoid being late? If not, why not?

(2) Can your wife honestly say she did not enjoy any part of the wedding or wedding reception because the grandmother wasn't there? Disappointment perhaps, but complete non-enjoyment of the wedding or the reception would be a difficult one sell to any judge.

(3) Why did you and your wife miss out on group photos if you were both present at your own wedding? That sounds like it was a choice you both consciously made rather than it being an impossibility to have group photos taken. Even if it was an impossibility, how does that impose a responsibility on the taxi co.?

(4) Why was your wife unable to mingle during her own wedding reception? I am speculating here, but assuming the wedding ceremony lasted 30 minutes, and the grandmother arrived 80 minutes late, that would suggest the wedding reception only lasted 50 minutes if your wife couldn't mingle because she must have spent all that time on the phone to the taxi co.? Or did something else happen that prevented her from mingling at all during the reception that was the taxi co.'s responsibility? This one doesn't quite add up for me but there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation. 

Grandmother: Being completely honest, the grandmother probably has the best prospects of making a claim for loss of enjoyment out of all three. Again, she would need to prove she has a right to enforce the contract under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. Her claim for loss of enjoyment is likely to be straightforward e.g. taxi was cancelled, missed the wedding of a very special occasion and/or all or part of the wedding reception etc.

What's the claim for loss of enjoyment worth? No idea, but it's not going to be a significant payout. Wild guess would be a few hundred quid, maybe a little more if the grandmother had a special part to play in the wedding or if there were other factors e.g. health conditions and the grandmother was not going to be around much longer so it made the wedding more special, but otherwise if she was still able to attend the reception/party and enjoy some of it, that would be reflected in any compensation awarded by a judge. 

saajan_12

Covid_Vaccinator said:

Do we have any claim against the taxi company?

Depends what you're claiming FOR. Any claim has two elements, liability and damages. 
Liability is there since it was the taxi company's mistake in taking down the incorrect number and the ensuing actions of failing to send a taxi on time. Negligence (as opposed to mal intent) don't stop it from being their responsibility to pay for. 

However damages have to be a natural implication of the taxi company's mistake, and the injured party has the obligation to mitigate damages. The bride didn't have to be the one to call, but rather could have mitigated damages by delegating another guest to call, call on the way to the church, or just get a 3rd party taxi. The damages would then have been limited to the cost of an alternative taxi for one leg, or a guest missing out on 25 min of a wedding, not an entire wedding being delayed. 

born_again

Wonder how far grandmother was from Wife at time of realising no taxi.
Which could have been resolved by asking Wife's driver to go & pick her up 🤷‍♀️

Emmia

born_again said:

Wonder how far grandmother was from Wife at time of realising no taxi.
Which could have been resolved by asking Wife's driver to go & pick her up 🤷‍♀️

The taxi in question needed to be wheelchair accessible, the vehicle the bride travelled in, may not have been suitable.

Undervalued

Okell said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Alderbank said:

This sounds like a clear case where 'loss of enjoyment' would be absolutely a relevant head of claim.

I'm not so sure, the contract itself wasn't for enjoyment plus did the taxi company know it was a wedding. 

Another one for @A_Geordie ...

I suppose if I'd been the OP or his wife I'd have made damn' sure that the taxi company knew that it was a wedding.

And in that case I'd have thought "loss of enjoyment" would factor as a foreseeable outcome if the taxi company were in breach?

Fine but in that case, if I was the taxi company, I would charge more for weddings and other events where there is a risk of "loss of enjoyment" just in case something goes wrong and I get caught for compensation!