Injured teen taxi fare avoiders will go uncompensated

Two teens that jumped from a moving cab to avoid the £10 fare have been told they will go uncompensated by a judge.

On the 27th July 2009, Joseph Beaumont, Lewis O’Neill and four other friends were picked up by cabbie David Ferrer in Salford and asked to be taken into town. Mr Ferrer had realised the youths intent on jumping the fare.

In 2008 Mr Ferrer was in fear of his life as a group of young passengers stabbed and robbed him.

The cab stopped on Deansgate and three of the youths quickly exited the vehicle running away leaving an 11 year old, Beaumount and O’Neill in the vehicle. Mr Ferrer describe his emotion as ‘panicked’ by the memory of the previous year when he was stabbed twice and seriously injured as a result.

Mr Ferrer claimed it was ‘like déjà vu’ and it was noted that he was “justifiably aggrieved” and “angry” at the attempt to be ripped off.

He then drove off with the sliding door still open so Beaumont jumped out of the moving vehicle backwards onto the road with O’Neill following suit seconds later which caused life changing head injuries to them both.

Both men suffered severe injuries and decided to sue Mr Ferrer for a large sum of compensation and stated that he was negligent for driving off at a speed preventing them from leaving the taxi. Their lawyers argued the same statement adding that his passengers did not have seat belts on and that he should have given into the young criminals and faced the loss of his fare.

Initially the case was rejected however later appealed at London Appeals Court.

Lord Justice Longmore ruled on the case that it was “regrettably all too foreseeable” that the young men would try to run away.

He went on to state that it was “understandable” that Mr Ferrer did not want to lose his fare however there was no “excuse” for the risk he took. That being said the judge continued to rule that Mr Ferrer was “overwhelmed” by the youth’s recklessness and criminal intent. He also noted that Mr Ferrer was in a “difficult dilemma” however the youths could have strapped the seat belts on while he proceeded to the police station.

The judge stated “However, each chose not to do so but rather to position himself at an opened door of the taxi and to jump out of the taxi as it was moving away.

“Neither had any legitimate reason for this deliberate and utterly reckless decision,”

Lord Justice Longmore went on to state that there are powerful ‘”public policy” reasons to why Beaumont and O’Neill should go uncompensated. The decision is backed by the long-established legal principle in which criminals forfeit their compensation rights If they are injured during the course of an illegal act.