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Bedbugs…from the US to the UK

“Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” is no longer a saying for children but a warning for the hotel industry.

A US couple are bringing a multi-million dollar case in New York against the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.   The couple stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, London and claim hundreds of bedbugs “attacked” them during their five night stay resulting in painful, red, itchy eruptions. They claim not only to have been forced to obtain medical care for their physical and emotional injuries but, to add insult to injury, the little critters decided to travel back with the couple to their Manhattan apartment.  Allegedly, their apartment had to be fumigated, numerous belongings destroyed and the couple claim that they are still suffering both emotionally and physically.

The Mandarin Oriental Group is accused of negligence, recklessness, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, nuisance and deceptive trade practices. The couple are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of three million dollars, as they want to punish Mandarin for its alleged failure to provide them with suitable accommodation and its alleged failures properly to deal with the matter afterwards.

The claim is being brought against eight defendants, all of which are interrelated group companies, two of which are US corporations. The couple’s attorneys argue that the New York district court should hear the claim because the Mandarin Oriental Group “have offices and conduct systematic and continuous business” in the district; and because the couple suffered “continuous and new injuries and damages” in the district.  An early challenge to jurisdiction might be expected. 

To the English reader this may seem unusual but there are numerous other cases in the US, where similar claims have and are being made against hotels.  These include a successful claim in Illinois against Accor Econ Loding Inc, in which two Chicago trade show attendees who found their Motel 6 hotel room overrun with bedbugs, were each awarded $5,000 in compensatory damages and $186,000 in punitive damages. In this instance, it was found that the hotel management did little or nothing to address the problem of which it had been aware since 1998.  Other cases currently pursued in the US include a claim where a mother is suing the Marriott hotel group in relation to over a thousand bites suffered by her children while staying at Disneyland Florida.  Further, in January 2007, a New York opera singer sued the Hilton Hotel chain for $6 million claiming she suffered more than 100 bites which was “not going to help [her] romantic life or [her] career”.

The common thread in all these cases is that the hotels did not act appropriately once they became aware of the infestations. 

An equivalent claim in England and Wales against a hotel would probably involve claims for negligence, breach of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (the “Act”), breach of the duty under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, subject to the terms of the guest’s contract with the hotel and breaches of certain implied terms of that contract.  An infested room could well breach the implied condition (under the Act) that the hotel is not carrying out its services with reasonable care and skill and an imaginative lawyer might come up with any number of additional implied terms. 

In the UK, a spate of bedbug infestations occurred between 1999 and 2001. The Grand Hotel in Brighton had an embarrassing outbreak of bedbugs at the height of the 2005 Labour Party Conference.  Most of the claims arising out of bedbug incidents were reportedly settled by a reduction in charges (an indication of the likely modest sums involved in such claims) and the claims did not reach the Courts.  One defence filed in the County Court, but never tested in proceedings, asserted that the Claimant could have brought the bugs into the hotel himself, as they have been known to travel in the turn-ups of trousers.

The real distinction between bringing a bedbug claim in the US and bringing a claim in England and Wales is the level of recoverable damages.  In England and Wales it is very rare for punitive damages to be awarded. The concept of damages in England and Wales is to compensate for the loss caused.  Exemplary damages, which are punitive, are rarely awarded and indeed can only be awarded where the defendant deliberately and outrageously disregards the claimant’s rights.  It is highly unlikely that a bedbug case could be shown that a hotel ‘outrageously’ disregarded a guest’s rights, especially if it offered to reimburse its guest in any way for his or her costs. 

Realistically, any bedbug claim against a hotel in the UK would result in minimal damages being awarded due to the short-term discomfort suffered by the victim, unless they are able to show otherwise.  When assessing damages in respect of non-pecuniary loss an English court will normally award a lump sum in respect of “pain and suffering and loss of amenities” and special damages for any relevant extra costs incurred.  A leaf through Kemp and Kemp, the authoritative guide to personal injury damages in the English Courts, does not reveal any damages awarded as a consequence of bedbug bites.  Comparable examples include: £2,000 awarded to two children in an approved settlement (as they were minors) after they suffered insect bites and developed a disease due to a cockroach infestation at their home; £500 awarded for soft tissue injury and bruising to the lower body after the claimant was thrown from his motorcycle; and £3,000 awarded for extensive abrasions to the knee together with grazing and bruising when the claimant was knocked over and stood on by a police horse.