Many thanks to all, for your replies.
I am going to write to the airline and ask them to state their policy for broken seats.
In the meantime, I will not book any flights with this particular company.
Not that this is relevant to safety, but I was in a paid business class seat and am a * alliance Gold card holder, not great customer service.
PS PIltdown Man, thanks for your kind comments - NB: I don't play games on service or upgrades :-)