Dancer sues airport after slipping on wet floor
Arrivals Hall at the Owen Roberts Airport
(CNS): A dancer and burlesque artist who came to the Cayman Islands some three years ago to appear at a private corporate event at the Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman is suing the Cayman Islands Airports Authority as a result of long-term damage she claims to have endured after slipping in a pool of water inside the Owen Roberts International Airpoty terminal. Jessica Hindsley (37) from Denver, Colorado, has filed a legal action in the Grand Court seeking damages from the CIAA over the sprained ankle she sustained back in March 2016 because it has impacted her ability to work.
Hindsely slipped at the airport on the day she arrived, shortly after collecting her luggage. She was taken to the George Town hospital, where she was treated but was unable to perform that evening.
When she returned to the US, the dancer said she sought further medical treatment for the ankle injury which has continued to cause her problems ever since. Hindsley stated in the court documents that, as a dancer and performance artist who supplements that work as a waitress, the injury continues to prevent her from earning a living and she is seeking recompense for her loss of earnings and medical bills.
Category: Local News
Good luck CIAA! Most claims brought right before limitation expires have little legs.
not to sound like a D, but reaaallllyyyy?….. a sprained ankle prevented you/ affected your work for more than 3 years? girl need some vitamins, supligen and conch soup with them ol feeble body parts.
I sprained my ankles a couple of times well and they were fine after about 6-8 weeks.
Question is what would you do?
nobody can win against govt in a cayman islands court…
I’m surprised more of these kind of suits don’t happen. The same with the road works where they close a lane and the first sign telling you that the lane is going to close is at the closure.
US Law also allows her to bring a claim in US Federal court.
And? CIAA is not in the US, has no presence in the US and a US judgment in default would be unenforceable in Cayman.
Lots of precedent for this where US assets or USD transactions of CIAA could be at risk… PanAm Libya case etc.
Dream on. CIAA would be crazy to defend claims in the US otherwise every two bit tourist from Hicksville would be suing it.
Looks like a lot of locals commenting here. If she had to visit the hospital right after she slipped and could not perform that night, this is prima facie evidence she suffered injury.
The point here genius is not whether or not she suffered an injury. It is whether or not that injury has prevented her from being able to perform and earn a living long after the incident.
Also, common sense has nothing to do with whether it is “locals” or others commenting.
11.51 am Your logic escapes me , but then you are not a genius. How do you know how long she took to recover, the point is the CIAA are responsible for what happened whether you like it or not.
I was doing a google search for an old video of mine and found this article…about me. I slipped in an unmarked puddle of water next to the baggage belt as I grabbed my suitcase causing a fall. It was diagnosed as a sprain in the ER but once returning to the states we discovered that wasn’t the full situation-including damaged tendons and a fracture. After working with the airport insurance for 2 years it was clear that I was out of my depth so I looked for a lawyer there in the Caymans. I found an angel who did everything she could to help me but one of the above comments was correct, I would have lost everything in legal fees just trying to recoup medical cost. After 3 year of fighting, honestly just trying to recoup medical and some of my lost wages I was basically forced to drop the case. Four years later I still can’t walk several days a year and I live in chronic pain. I haven’t been able to dance onstage in ages which was my livelihood and my passion. I am able to do some choreography work-mostly by video teaching so I can take breaks when needed. I’m saving up for the surgery required from this injury. It will cost me $35,000 and end the career and dream I worked my entire life for…before 40. So yes, unfortunately the injury was very real. Everyone I came in contact with on the island was so incredibly kind and helpful. I hope to comeback one day and visit…just maybe not the ER!
So? That does not mean the CIAA is liable does it? And I’d be very interested in seeing her documented right to attend to work in Cayman, so should the judge.
11.51am Your logic still escapes me, if the CIAA is not responsible for an accident caused by water spilled on their property and not cleaned up, who is”?. Also what has her right to work in Cayman got to do with the accident?.
Since she is suing for lost income from work in Cayman of course the legality of that work is 100% relevant. And why was the alleged water that caused the alleged trip the fault of CIAA? It rains in the Caribbean, people need to take care.
Give her a million dollars in bit coin.
Still a million dollars!
Make it 100 million. The point is, like her injury, it’s difficult to prove that she hasn’t been given the payment in some obscure crypto currency that nobody can locate.
Wow you really need to learn about currencies and crypto, you have to buy it, so a million dollars in crypto is funny enough, a million dollars.
You don’t have to buy it, just say that you did crypto genius.
She looks perfectly fine
Doesn’t look like her angle is a problem according to the video film live in December 2018
Did she have a work permit? Was she an illegal immigrant?
Did her employer hold a Trade and Business License? Did she?
CNS: Entertainers coming to Cayman for a single performance usually do so on a Business Visitors’ Permit. There is no reason to think she was here illegally.
But did she have a BVP?
For casual one off hires by off island businesses compliance with BVPs requirements are far from the norm. It would be easy for her to prove she had one.
She would not be eligible for a BVP for a single visit. It is unlikely she had one.
If that was the case she cannot sue for the loss of the weird Cayman gig as she would have been working illegally.
Bingo. Now, is anyone looking into her employer? Were laws broken or not?
CNS – I believe the Trade and Business Licensing Law requires all trades to be licensed. What, and whose, license was she operating under is a fair question. The holder of the license would be expected to have insurances in place for their employees.
What does that have to do with anything?
Because the public are sick and tired of so many foreign nationals ignoring our laws?
uh, crime?
She couldn’t claim lost wages she would have earned illegally. And if her presence at the airport was part of an illegal effort to entry the nation and work illegally then that may be a defence for the airport too.
IF (and I accept there is no evidence one way or the other) she misled the immigration authorities as to whether or not she was here to work, it could undermine her credibility.
The tort of negligence has nothing to do with Work Permits. The question is typical of first year lawschool tort exams
For the lost earnings it would be directly relevant. There would be the prospect of the defence of illegality or possibly that she was not a lawful occupier.
Honesty and integrity have everything to do with having a credible claim.
She looks fine to me.. video posted on 30 December 2018. Just google her name..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N6igFeZraw
Hope that someone from the Cayman Islands Airports Authority downloads it before it’s deleted.
It’s not for you to decide if she is fine to perform professionally.
Doesn’t prove anything about her ability to work between March 2016 and December 2018
Maybe not…but the rest of her videos do…and videos posted of her performing live shows at bdt!
cayman is lucky it hasn’t got the litigation rates of the states…but it will creep in here
it’s all about the benjamins….