A man who is wheelchair bound is making a compensation claim for £5,000 against a local pub after he couldn’t gain access to the disabled toilet.
Welshman David Arthur Jones, 55, launched his legal action against David and Susan Williams, the landlords of the Cross Foxes pub near Holywell, at Caernarfon crown court yesterday.
Mr Jones, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, alleges that the pub, which is part of the Punch Taverns group, failed to provide adequate access to the building and toilet from July 2006 to March 2008.
Mr Jones, who is representing himself in the case, says he visited the pub approximately 20 times during that period in his role as a committee member and fan of football team Brynford United, who play in the Clwyd League.
The Cross Foxes pub was used by the club to host post-match entertainment until an incident involving the claimant on Saturday, March 22, 2008.
According to Mr Jones, who has to wear a catheter bag due to his condition, he was left covered in his own urine because the disabled toilet was not adequate.
He was later thrown out of the pub and he accused the landlords of “manhandling” and trying to “physically eject” him from their premises.
However, David Green, the solicitor representing Mr and Mrs Williams, claimed that Mr Jones was “drunk” and “obnoxious” on the night in question and accused him of basing his entire case for the two-year period because of the “humiliation” he suffered.
Mr Jones responded that while it was true that the incident in March 2008 was the “trigger” for the claim, the landlords had previously failed to act on his complaints that the toilet was too narrow for his standard-sized wheelchair to fit.
He said: “I asked Dave (Mr Williams) if there was anything he could do about it but he said he couldn’t because he was only leasing the pub.”
Mr Jones continued that because of this, he had no choice but to “discreetly” use a catheter bag.
However, Mr Green declared that Mr Jones only decided to make a claim because of his experiences in March 2008.
He added that Mr Jones, who usually left the pub between 6-7pm on a Saturday night, stayed behind until at least 10.30pm.
Mr Green said: “By the time you left you had a few too many drinks.
“You were quite merry really?
“If you were not drunk then you were on the way.”
A police sergeant appeared to corroborate Mr Green’s statement. He said Mr Jones was “drunk and aggressive”.
Mr Green added: “The upset and humiliation of the evening was the result of your own actions and not on the part of Mr and Mrs Williams… any injury or hurt pride was self inflicted.”
Mr Jones said: “I had five pints of lager, too much to drive a car but I was not drunk.”
The case continues.
