The High Court dismissed a personal injuries claim against Carlow County Council over a fall on uneven paving in Tullow, finding that the plaintiff had not proved the accident happened as he described it. The judge said that, even if it had, responsibility would have rested entirely with the plaintiff.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 24 November 2017, Mr Justice Twomey considered the claim arising from an alleged fall on 2 March 2013. The plaintiff said he tripped in a hole in cobble lock paving near his home in Shroughan Close, Tullow, at about 7.30pm. He said he fractured his nose and that it tilted to the right.
The council conceded that repair work at the location was “shoddy and defective”. The judgment described missing paving blocks and uneven concrete protruding above the paving, near a lamppost. But the judge was not persuaded by the plaintiff’s account of how or where he fell.
The judge cited differences between the account given in court and information recorded by a specialist doctor. The plaintiff had told the doctor he fell outside his house and into a pothole, while the alleged hole was about 200 metres from his home and was in a pedestrianised paved area. The judge also considered the described fall improbable, noting the plaintiff had no injuries to his hands or knees, and questioned why he had taken a route to a nearby field that brought him to the hole beside the lamppost.
The court also noted that a specialist had advised the plaintiff to return within 10 days to have his nose rebroken and reset. He did not do so. The judgment said he was seeking about €10,000 for plastic surgery, and that following the advice would have avoided the need for that additional cosmetic surgery.
The judge said the defective section was at least 30 inches long and about 25 inches wide, and that there was no suggestion the lamppost was not working. Applying the Court of Appeal’s direction to use ordinary common sense when assessing reasonable care in a straightforward trip-and-fall case, the judge said it was difficult to see how the plaintiff had not noticed and avoided the defect.
The court did not assess damages because liability was not established. The judgment said that, if liability had been proved, the recovered nose fracture would have fallen within a €18,000 to €22,100 range under the Book of Quantum. The claim was dismissed.