The High Court has awarded €158,864 to a retired public servant who suffered a fractured thumb and other injuries in a fall at her workplace in Sligo, finding the defendants liable for an unsafe courtyard surface.
In a judgment delivered on 10 December 2018, Ms Justice Bronagh O’Hanlon found on the balance of probabilities that the plaintiff’s left foot snagged on uneven paving on 1 September 2014, pitching her forward. The court accepted that she may have identified the wrong slab, but found that movement in the paving and a raised edge caused the trip. It rejected the defence engineer’s suggestion that her sandals, phone use or pace contributed to the accident.
The plaintiff had been walking through the courtyard at or near Cranmore while employed as a clerical officer. She fractured the tip of her left thumb and suffered soft tissue injuries to her wrist and back. The court heard that the thumb remained permanently deformed, with reduced function and nail damage, and that she continued to experience back pain and stiffness. The judge also noted that she retired earlier than planned because of her symptoms.
The engineers disagreed about the precise point of the fall and what the CCTV showed. The plaintiff’s engineer described a significant trip hazard in the paving and said the footage showed a trip, but could not identify the precise defect from the recording. The court accepted his evidence, including that the slabs could move and were uneven. The judge noted that the footage lacked detail and did not clearly show a defect.
The court found that the defendants knew of the risk and had failed to take adequate measures to keep the route to and from the plaintiff’s workplace safe. It held that they breached the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The judgment referred to an email indicating that the courtyard would be renovated, which the judge said showed an intention to address the paving.
The award comprised €80,000 in general damages, including €15,000 for future pain and suffering; €75,864 for earnings, pension and gratuity losses after a deduction for disability benefit; and €3,000 in agreed special damages. The total was €158,864.