Luxury Hotel Ordered to Pay Over $40,000 for Child's Fall

A Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court has ordered a luxury hotel to pay approximately NIS 158,000 (about $42,000 USD) in compensation to a toddler who was injured in the children's club at the Leonardo Club Hotel in Tiberias. The court found that inadequate supervision led to the incident.

The three-and-a-half-year-old child suffered a severe elbow fracture after falling from a slide in the hotel's supervised children's club. The supervising attendant was reportedly absent at the time of the fall. The child's mother testified that she had informed the attendant she was leaving briefly to breastfeed, only to return and find her son injured and the attendant gone.

Fatale Hotels, the hotel chain, argued that the lawsuit was filed with significant delay and that signage requiring adult supervision for children under six was posted. However, Judge Kais Nashef ruled that the hotel failed to prove the signage was present at the time of the incident. The court also noted negatively that the hotel did not call the attendant as a witness and did not present an official incident report, suggesting an attempt to evade responsibility.

The court determined the child's medical and functional disability to be 5%. Compensation was awarded for future loss of earning capacity, pension losses, medical expenses, assistance from others, and pain and suffering. The total award was NIS 158,750, plus attorney fees and court costs. The court also ordered the hotel to pay an additional NIS 5,000 due to improper procedural conduct by the defense.

However, the court also assigned 30% of the responsibility to the parents, ruling they bore some contributory negligence. The funds will be deposited for the child according to strict court instructions.