"Mrs Hussein, at 115kg, must have taken up much of the width of the stairway," said the judge, "but for some inexplicable reason, she did not use the handrail."  The mother, who has since shed five stones of weight, told the court she was walking down the left side of the stairs, whereas the banister was on the right. But Judge Baucher said, given her size at the time, that should not have prevented Mrs Hussein using the rail as she walked down the metre-wide stairway. Earlier, Mrs Hussein said she had drunk no more than a glass and a half of champagne and a glass of red wine, and was not tipsy. But the club's barrister Catherine Foster pointed out medical records from her arrival at hospital, in which she was described as "obviously drunk" and "intoxicated". Judge Baucher also visited the scene of the fall and found nothing wrong with lighting, and ruled Ronnie Scott’s was not to blame for the accident. "In ordinary circumstances, she, like countless others, would have descended the staircase and gone home," continued the judge. “However, on that evening, whether due to one or more of the factors – painkillers, weight, shoes, drink – she simply missed her footing. “I find she did so through no fault on the part of Ronnie Scott’s.”
– A judge in Britain has denied a woman's claim that dim lighting in a jazz club was to blame for injuries she suffered in a fall, with her unusually frank ruling making headlines because of its references to the woman's "inebriated, obese state." Judge Heather Baucher ruled last week that 254-pound Eren Hussein was responsible for her own injuries when she tumbled down stairs at a popular London jazz spot "on three-inch platforms," the Telegraph reports. Hussein, 53, filed a civil lawsuit demanding thousands of dollars in damages from Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club after she broke her wrist and elbow there in March 2012 during a night out. Hussein testified that she missed a step outside an upstairs lounge and fell down two flights of stairs. "It was dark, it was dim and I didn't see my step as I was going down," she said. But the judge faulted her for not holding the banister, noting that Hussein "must have taken up much of the width of the stairway." Hospital records described Hussein, who has since lost 70 pounds, as "obviously drunk," but she insisted she only had 2.5 glasses of wine and champagne. The judge noted she may have been affected by painkillers she was taking. "On that evening, whether due to one or more of the factors—painkillers, weight, shoes, drink—she simply missed her footing," the judge said, per the Independent.