IN LONDON

Will Pike, who broke his spine in the attack, had filed a case in London court, accusing Taj of ignoring a specific warning of a possible terror assault.British citizen Will Pike, who was paralysed in the 26/11 terror attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai in 2008 and had sued the hotel in a London court for not doing enough to protect its guests, has settled for an undisclosed sum in compensation.More than seven years after the 26/11 attacks, this is the first compensation claim settled by a private entity impacted by the terrorist assault that left 164 people dead across multiple sites, including hotels, a pub, a railway station, and a Jewish Community Centre.Pike was paralysed when he fell 50 feet breaking his back and pelvis while trying to escape from the hotel. He later filed a case in a London Court, alleging that the hotel did not react to an alert about a possible terror strike, putting the lives of its employees and guests in danger.Though the Taj group has contested the London court’s jurisdiction to try the case, in December 2013, the London High Court ruled that Pike’s case must be heard in the UK because in India it would could take up to 20 years for the trial to end.On Wednesday, Leigh Day solicitors, the law firm representing Pike, refused to comment on the size of the compensation. David Standard, media relations manager at the law firm, said: “The High Court rejected the Indian Hotel Company’s argument that the English Courts did not have jurisdiction to try the claim. Subsequently, the case was concluded. We are unable to provide any further information.”Nobody from the Taj Group was available to comment. The hotel said that only the group’s legal team would be able to offer a comment and that it could take up to 24 hours.Mumbai Mirror was the first publication to report on the filing of the case by Pike against the Taj management in March 2012. Pike had first approached the Taj group for negotiations and had made his claim for compensation, but the two parties couldn’t reach an agreement. The management also disagreed with Pike’s lawyers that a compensation case could be registered in the UK. The Taj maintained that Indian courts were the appropriate forum for compensation related to the 26/11 attacks.Pike, an advertising copywriter, and his girlfriend Kelly Doyle were staying at the Taj when terrorists attacked the sea-facing hotel. Pike and Kelly first hid in the bathroom, but as smoke from fires started by the terrorists began filling the room, Pike smashed a window to escape. He knotted bed sheets and tied them to curtains to lower himself and Kelly down. However, the curtains and bed sheets could not bear his weight and Pike fell about 50 feet.Besides suffering fractures to his leg and hands, the fall snapped his backbone, leaving him paralysed.At the initial hearings, Pike and his lawyers had argued that the Tata Group, Taj Hotel’s holding company, has a major presence in the UK thus a case against the company can be filed here. They had further maintained that trying to fight them in India “would be an exercise in futility”. The Taj group had countered the argument saying that the case could only be heard in an Indian court where an application for expediting it, if accepted, could reduce the trial period.Leigh Day did not comment when Mirror asked them about the possible compensation figure which is expected to be substantial.Meanwhile, Indian Hotels Company Ltd, the Tata Group firm that owns Taj, had expressed disappointment that London High Court accepted jurisdiction to hear Pike’s case.In a statement expressing its disappointment when the case was accepted by the London Court, the Taj group had said: “The acceptance of jurisdiction by the English court was made without any detailed consideration of the merits of the claim; it was a purely procedural decision. This tragedy in which many staff and guests were killed or injured was not the fault of the hotel owners.”