Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowler1  Fine was a poor choice of word and quite rightly on tehis forum, I have not got away with it. |
Sorry, Bowler, I didn't mean to sound as if I was correcting you for no reason, but I forgot to add in the bit I was thinking of when I wrote it (senility calls...
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It's an award of compensation because this is a civil matter -- the family on behalf of the little girl are suing KFC for the tort (wrong) they did to her. By and large fines are only imposed for criminal offences -- ie following conviction after prosecution by the state. And what's interesting here is that there's nothing said about KFC being prosecuted for the original food poisoning of the whole family.
I don't know the exact remit of Environmental Health laws over there, but I would have expected the authorities to have taken a keen interest in these circumstances. If KFC had been prosecuted the family lawyers would have trumpeted it very loudly indeed. Again, the lack of reporting means we don't know what happened -- it might be the family didn't notify anyone until far too late for investigations to be made, or investigations were made and KFC cleared by the EH inspectors. Neither invalidates the family's claim, but both give extra strength to KFC's defence and grounds for appeal.