The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s finding that a defective stepladder caused Gunta Kadege’s ankle injury while she was working at a Dunnes Stores supermarket, but reduced her total damages award from €160,901 to €140,901.
In a judgment delivered on 15 February 2023, Mr Justice Noonan said the appeal against liability failed. The court found the trial judge was entitled to accept Ms Kadege’s account that she was on the ladder when she fell, despite uncertainty in her evidence about whether she was climbing up or down.
Ms Kadege, a sales assistant at the Leopardstown supermarket, suffered a trimalleolar fracture of her left ankle in September 2018. Her written account, made while she was on the floor awaiting an ambulance, said she had been climbing down when her leg slipped from the last step. Hospital records later that night recorded a history of twisting and falling from a ladder.
Dunnes Stores argued that she had tripped over the ladder rather than fallen from it. A store floor manager told the High Court that Ms Kadege had twice said she was not on the ladder. The trial judge rejected his recollection. The Court of Appeal noted that the manager’s written statement about the accident had gone missing and that he was not asked to recall events until shortly before the trial, about three and a half years later.
The accident report form said CCTV appeared to show Ms Kadege tripping over the ladder, but its author was unidentified and its dates were unexplained. The appeal court described the CCTV as poor quality and inconclusive. It said the trial judge could prefer the plaintiff’s account and the evidence of her engineer, who considered the footage consistent with a fall from the ladder.
The High Court had also accepted evidence that the ladder was unstable and that its movement could cause a user to lose balance. The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge was entitled to find the defect caused the fall and that Dunnes Stores was liable. It therefore dismissed the appeal on liability.
On damages, the Court of Appeal held that the €120,000 general damages award—€50,000 for past injury and €70,000 for future injury—was disproportionate. The ankle injury fell within the Book of Quantum category for severe and permanent ankle conditions, with a stated range of €80,500 to €93,300. The court allowed an uplift for the prospect of a future ankle fusion, but reduced future general damages to €50,000, leaving general damages at €100,000. With agreed special damages of €40,901, it substituted a total judgment of €140,901. The parties were directed to make written submissions on costs within 21 days.