Dr Know, a well-known academic, is due to speak at the Annual Brighton Small Business Conference. She arrives early and books into the Ship Hotel, owned by Leisure Ltd. She has stayed there on a number of occasions in previous years. Her room is not ready so she asks the receptionist if she can leave her overnight bag with him. He takes her bag and gives her a cloakroom ticket, which she stuffs into her pocket without reading. The back of the cloakroom ticket reads ‘All items left at reception at owner’s risk.’ When Dr Know returns to the hotel she is informed that her bag has gone missing but will be returned to her as soon as it is found.
Dr Know goes up to her bedroom and sees a large notice which states: ‘Leisure Ltd accepts no responsibility for loss of property or injury to persons, howsoever caused’. Dr Know decides to carry her laptop computer to dinner in case it is stolen from the hotel room. Unfortunately, on her way to dinner, Dr Know catches her shoe in a large hole in the stair carpet, and falls down the stairs breaking her arm and damaging her laptop.
Advise Dr Know whether she can claim, in law of contract, for the loss of her overnight bag (which has never been found), the damage to her laptop, and for the injury caused to her arm.