The High Court has dismissed a personal injury claim by a man who broke his right leg after climbing a locked gate at Bon Secours Hospital in Tralee, finding the hospital had not acted with reckless disregard for his safety.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2024, Ms Justice Emily Egan said the claimant was a trespasser under the Occupiers Liability Act 1995. The court found the hospital could not reasonably have known that people taking a shortcut through its grounds would try to climb the security gate. It also found that any movement in the gate did not cause the injury.
The man was cycling to collect his eldest child from school on 21 September 2016. He said he had used the hospital grounds as a shortcut for several years, but found the northern gate locked. CCTV showed him throwing his bicycle over the gate and climbing it using parts of the gate as footholds. At the top, he jumped over and landed awkwardly.
He suffered an open fracture of the right tibia and fibula, required surgery and spent seven days in hospital. He continued to experience pain and limited movement, which restricted activities including walking, lifting and playing sport.
The claimant argued that the gate was unstable because its shooting bolts were not secured in ground-level metal receivers. His engineering expert said that the gate’s movement contributed to the incident. The hospital’s engineer disputed that the gate was defective and said the movement seen on the CCTV was caused by the claimant’s jump.
The judge said she could not discern appreciable movement while the claimant was balancing at the top. She said any movement then must have been minor, and concluded from the footage that he jumped rather than fell. Even if the gate should have had receivers, she found their absence did not cause the injury.
The court also found the claimant had time to take a safer route around the hospital. He accepted in evidence that climbing the gate was an unnecessary risk and that the manoeuvre he planned at the top was extremely dangerous. The judge said the hospital’s duty to trespassers was not to injure them intentionally or act with reckless disregard; she was not satisfied that the hospital breached that duty.
The court dismissed the claim. The judgment did not make an award of damages.