The Court of Appeal has allowed an Electricity Supply Board appeal and dismissed Terence (otherwise Terry) Morgan’s personal injuries claim over a fall on stairs at the ESB’s Avenue Road premises in Dundalk. It set aside the High Court order awarding him €110,000 in damages.
Mr Morgan fell on 30 April 2013 while carrying post down a staircase. The High Court found that wetness caused the fall and that worn stair nosing combined with the wetness contributed to it. It also found a breach of statutory duty related to his training in collecting post and made no finding of contributory negligence. The Court of Appeal concluded that the evidence did not support those findings.
Mr Morgan said he saw water droplets coming from a skylight above the landing after he fell. But in an injury form completed weeks later, and during an investigation meeting and subsequent report corrections, he did not mention a skylight leak. He described wet steps and possible spillage. The Court of Appeal said those omissions undermined his later account. It agreed with the trial judge that a leak had not been established, and noted that the High Court had made no express finding of negligence against the ESB.
The appeal court also rejected the finding that defective stair nosing contributed to the accident. An engineer for Mr Morgan relied on a black and white photograph of worn nosing, but could not identify who took it, when or whether it showed the staircase where the fall occurred. The court said there was no credible evidence linking a defect in the relevant step to the accident.
It further held that training was not properly raised as an issue before trial and that Mr Morgan had said he had no complaint about how he was expected to handle the post. The court found there was no evidence to support the High Court’s conclusion that a training shortcoming breached the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
The Court of Appeal ordered that the High Court order be set aside and the claim dismissed. It stated a provisional view that the ESB should receive its costs in both courts. Mr Morgan had 14 days to seek a brief further hearing on costs; absent such an application, the proposed costs order would be made.