Khaberni - The Abu Dhabi Commercial Court (Preliminary) ruled that a furniture and upholstery cleaning company must pay a woman AED 10,000 as compensation for its failure to remove a stain from her couch and causing damage to the fabric of the couch, noting that the company’s error, which is being sued, has resulted in material and moral damages suffered by the plaintiff.
In detail, a woman filed a lawsuit against a furniture cleaning company, demanding that it pay her AED 10,000, including the value of the damaged couch, and compensation for the material and moral harm she suffered. This also includes the legal interest for the due amount from the date of the lawsuit registration until full payment, along with the obligation of judicial fees and expenses incurred by the lawsuit. She attached to her claim images of conversations between her and the sued company, as well as an invoice worth AED 4375 for the couch.
Meanwhile, the representative of the sued company submitted a defensive memorandum stating that the plaintiff contacted the company to clean a couch, and that they did what they could to remove the existing stains on the couch, but were unable to remove them. It also argued that it is difficult to definitively remove stains, and that they contacted her afterward offering to solve the problem and repair the couch, planning to completely replace the upholstery with original fabric. However, she exaggerated the matter, and requested AED 3000 despite the couch's price not exceeding AED 2000, noting that she did not deny her obligation and admitted there was a mistake, even though there was no shortfall, but only because a customer service official unrealistically promised the plaintiff the stain removal without verifying its cause, which led them to take responsibility out of respect for their customers. The company pleaded for the case to be dismissed due to the plaintiff’s exorbitance and absolute arbitrariness, and alternatively, to be satisfied with obliging the plaintiff to deliver the couch for reupholstering and damage repair or to estimate the value of damages as deemed fit by the court, which would only compensate for the damage, and to oblige the plaintiff with the fees, expenses, and attorney fees.
On its part, the court clarified in the rationale of its judgment that, according to the established civil transactions law, any harm done to others obliges the perpetrator, even if not discriminatory, to guarantee the damage. It highlighted that the plaintiff sued the defendant company based on providing furniture and some upholstery cleaning services, that she contacted them to clean a special couch of hers, and that the latter’s employees came to her house to clean the couch, but after finishing the cleaning, she was surprised by their use of unsuitable cleaning materials, which resulted in the damage to the couch. Upon contacting the sued company, they tried to resolve the issue three times until it was confirmed that the couch fabric was damaged beyond repair, as evidenced by conversations on the social media messaging application “WhatsApp”, and an agreement was reached amicably between the parties to compensate the first party by replacing the couch, then the company retracted the agreement and asked her to take it for reupholstering, a solution that did not satisfy its owner, the plaintiff.
The court pointed out that it is established that the sued company’s error in damaging the plaintiff's owned couch, which necessarily led her to bear the repair or replacement cost in addition to compensation for the moral damages incurred due to the company not providing the requested service appropriately, and her need to file a complaint with the Consumer Protection, followed by resorting to the court to seek compensation, which necessarily harmed her morally. Hence, the claim for compensation for the material and moral damages is valid, and the court ruled obliging the defendant to pay the plaintiff compensation amounting to AED 10,000 for the material and moral damages, and the delay interest on it at a rate of 5% annually from the date this judgment becomes final and until full payment, and obliging it with the legal costs of the lawsuit.
