Great Western Coffee Shop

A lady with a heavy, hard suitcase she can't manage herself gets helped onto the train by a kindly gentlemen who struggles with it too. He manages to lift it, and but drops it very heavily on top of my padded (but not militarised!) bag, breaking the screen of a laptop computer that's in the bag.  Who should pay for the repair of the laptop?

a) The lady who's bag it is
b) The gent who dropped the heavy hard object onto the bag containing the laptop
c) I should as I took the risk in leaving it there
d) The operator of the train
e) Someone else

Hypothetical situation - though no damage was done - from yesterday evening's 18:00 Paddington to Chippenham. Posted because I wonder, and other may have need to do rather more than wonder at some point. Not sure where I should post this; I've put in under the fares thing because it's about who pays

a) The lady who's bag it is - possibly, should have found someone who will lift on more carefully.
b) The gent who dropped the heavy hard object onto the bag containing the laptop - possibly as should be more careful when helping with other peoples property
c) I should as I took the risk in leaving it there - probably the most likely of who will pay!
d) The operator of the train - no
e) Someone else - insurance claim is the most likely way to claim.

a) The gent who dropped it.

Wasn't the woman's fault at all. The gent should have assessed his ability to lift it, and declined or taken the responsibility on lifting it.

but from National Conditions of Carriage


And surely she did not take reasonable care by entrusting it to a gent who wasn't capable of handling it in a safe manner ...


I agree on that ... sadly with an element of experience.    Travelling back from Ireland as a foot passenger on Irish Ferries, the checkin and luggage team in Dublin Port insisted I check in a bag containing several laptops as it was "too big to carry" even though I had already carried it on a Luas Tram and a bus that morning.  I remonstrated and ask "what if it gets damaged" and was told "you should have it insured / claim on your insurance if that happens".   Alas, it did happen ... one smashed screen and knowing how deep in the bag the laptops were packed, I suspect that it might have been loaded by a "how far can you throw it rather than walk" gorilla.

Ironically, one of the reasons for using the ferry was to avoid the hassle of flying with too much equipment to be acceptable for an airline's handbaggage.  Solution seems to be drive and take the car on the ferry.