The High Court has directed judgment for David Meagher for €48,379.81 after finding that a hotel failed to take reasonable care to protect him from a foreseeable assault in its car park.
Mr Justice Herbert found that Meagher was attacked at about 3.30am on 29 November 1999, after leaving the Matrix discotheque at the Ambassador Hotel in Kill, Co Kildare. The judge concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that the attackers were fellow discotheque customers.
Meagher had gone outside while waiting for his sister to park their car and his then fiancée sought a taxi. He told the court that two men he did not know approached and threatened him before one struck him, knocking him unconscious. His wife and sister later found him bleeding. The judge accepted their evidence that they saw no security staff in the front car park or nearby while they tried to get him help.
The court heard evidence that assaults and public order incidents occurred every few weeks in connection with the discotheque. A security consultant told the court that four visible, trained security staff should have remained in the front car park until patrons had left the grounds. The hotel’s former security head considered a high-profile presence there desirable. The judge found that the hotel knew of the risk of rowdy behaviour and assaults, and that it was foreseeable patrons could be injured if reasonable precautions were not taken.
The judge found the hotel generally had a security system that was sufficient, but that it was not operating at the time of the assault. On the balance of probabilities, no security staff or even car park attendants were on duty at the front of the hotel then, despite patrons still being in the car park. He found that four clearly identifiable guards, including one covering the hotel entrance and main doors, would probably have prevented the assault. The hotel was therefore in breach of its duty of reasonable care. The court did not treat the hotel as an insurer of patrons’ safety.
Meagher suffered fractures to both sides of his lower jaw, diagnosed several weeks after the attack, and underwent surgery and further treatment. By the time of trial, the fracture had healed and numbness had resolved, though clicking in his jaw joints and a sense of delicacy remained. The judge awarded €32,000 for past pain, suffering and inconvenience, €16,000 for future effects, and €379.51 in agreed special damages. Judgment was directed for €48,379.81.