The High Court has dismissed Margaret Mc Fadden’s personal injury claim against Bray Urban District Council, the Electricity Supply Board and Eircom, finding she could not reliably recall where she fell on Killarney Road or what caused her to trip.
In a judgment delivered on 19 January 2007, Mr Justice Herbert accepted that Mc Fadden fell while walking with Staff Nurse Emma Brennan in Bray on 10 April 1999. He found that the footpath was in considerable disrepair and that Mc Fadden suffered a moderately severe fracture of her left tibia, which was treated with a plate and screws.
The central issue was whether Mc Fadden could establish the precise location of the fall and the defect that caused it. Brennan had seen her fall but not trip, and the judge found Brennan’s recollection of the event was limited. She had first been interviewed about it shortly before the hearing, nearly seven years later, and had seen photographs of the alleged location for the first time then.
The evidence included photographs and engineering reports identifying different parts of Killarney Road. The plaintiff’s solicitor had initially visited a location near the Eastern Health Board offices, which the judge found was not the place where Mc Fadden later said she fell. The court also heard that family members had supplied photographs, but neither they nor the plaintiff’s witnesses had established through direct identification which defect caused the fall.
The judge found that Mc Fadden had no reliable recollection beyond falling somewhere near the house locally known as the “Green House”. He was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that she had proved where the fall occurred or what caused it. The claim was therefore dismissed.
The judgment records no damages award or other order against the defendants. It does not determine that any particular defendant caused the footpath’s condition or the fall.