Fortune teller sues Vue for £12.7m claiming being 'catapulted' from broken seat ruined his psychic career

Fortune teller sues Vue for £12.7m claiming being 'catapulted' from broken seat ruined his psychic career Marcus Hunefalk-Franzen says he would have earned big money from an ‘online psychic platform’ had the accident not occurred - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in A professional tarot card reader is suing cinema chain Vue for £12.7m, claiming that his future as an online fortune-telling guru was ruined when he was "catapulted" from a "defective" seat in a London cinema. Fortune teller and actor Marcus Hunefalk-Franzen, 60, says that he suffered a "whiplash" injury resulting in chronic neck and back pain, as well as impaired hearing, taste and smell, following the freak accident at Islington’s Vue Cinema in September 2015. Mr Hunefalk-Franzen says that the disaster left him living with a chronic pain condition, severely harmed his earnings as a tarot reader, and resulted in the loss of multiple acting and performing arts opportunities. He launched legal action against Vue Entertainment Ltd, with the firm admitting liability for the incident and Mr Hunefalk-Franzen originally valuing the claim at £50,000, before later increasing it to £200,000. However, with the case still not having reached trial 11 years after his accident, legal papers show his valuation has now mounted to £12.7m – a figure that Vue's lawyers dispute. Mr Hunefalk-Franzen claims that prospective commercial plans involving a unique mode of acting coaching and an "online psychic platform" called "MyPsychicEye" would have already earned him more than £1.5m had the accident not occurred. He is also seeking over £10m for lost future earnings, arguing his online "MyPsychicEye" project would currently be earning over £1m per year and could have been sold for £3m upon his retirement. Central London County Court heard that Mr Hunefalk-Franzen suffered his accident while watching a matinee show in September 2015. It heard that he clattered to the ground after his seat suddenly collapsed without warning as he got up at the end of the film. At the time of his accident, Mr Hunefalk-Franzen, of Camden, north London, was doing professional tarot readings at Greenwich market and as well as beginning to develop a presence online. He has also had leading screen roles as an actor, including in Ginger Beer, a film about a gay teacher at an agricultural college learning ballroom dancing. Court documents filed on his behalf describing his accident say: “During the course of his visit, the claimant sat on a chair to view a film within the auditorium. “As he alighted from the chair, the chair collapsed in on itself and catapulted the claimant forward into the chair in front, causing a forward flexion and deceleration movement, resulting in soft tissue damage. “The claimant fell to the floor. By reason thereof, he has suffered personal injury, loss and damage. “It was later discovered that bolts anchoring the chair to the floor were missing, causing the chair to overturn.” Mr Hunefalk-Franzen claimed the collapsing chair was “dangerously defective” and became, in legal terms, a “trap” for him. He alleged fault by cinema staff in “failing to ensure the chair was sufficiently anchored to the floor by the negligent removal of safety bolts”, and "causing the chair, which was wholly defective to be placed and remain within the designated public seating area". "The circumstances speak for themselves," the documents add. At a pre-trial hearing in 2024 before Judge Yvette Genn, Vue barrister David White had disputed the value of his claim – which Mr Hunefalk-Franzen at that time put at £200,000 – insisting it is it was worth between £8,000 to £12,500, a position the cinema company still holds, he confirmed this week. In its defence to the action, Vue's lawyers say that "a review of the claimant's pre-accident medical records ... identified a significant pre-existing history of symptoms including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome dating back to 2008 and neck pain dating back to 2009. "On the day of the accident, the claimant reported to the defendant that he had suffered an injury to his back. There was no mention of immediate severe pain in the neck, in the feet and/or in the legs, nor of immediate moderate paraesthesia in the feet, nor of immediate mild loss of taste of the left side of the tongue," the company's defence adds. Judge Genn described it as a “complex claim – complicated by the fact that there was a previous brain injury suffered by the claimant in 2004, although Mr Hunefalk-Franzen says he had recovered from that by 2013”. The court also heard that the trial of the claim was due to reach court by February 2025 at the latest. But this week, some 18 months after that date, the case returned for another pre-trial hearing before Judge Alan Saggarson, who heard that the case is now not set to be tried until the end of 2027, a dozen years after the accident. The judge, addressing the long delay, said that Mr Hunefalk-Franzen who is representing himself, "suffers from a constellation of difficulties relating to his cognitive ability and concentration and his ability to digest large amounts of information". He went on to refuse the tarot reader permission to rely on a revised report from a pain expert, which he wished to put before the trial judge, on the basis that he had missed a deadline for filing it. "Litigants in person are not to be given any special treatment," he said. "If that were the case, the court would be dispensing, in what is a popular phase at the moment, two-tier justice." He went on to say that the new expert report was in any case "simply irrelevant", as it is almost identical to one already before the court. "The [pain expert] professor has not changed his mind. The claimant's action remains firmly on track," he added. As well as the massive lost earnings claim, Mr Hunefalk-Franzen is claiming over £12,000 for past holidays under the heading "respite travel", along with thousands of pounds for a 15-year supply of orthopaedic shoes.