The High Court has refused Christian Morris’s appeal against the dismissal of his claims arising from an incident at a McDonald’s restaurant in Donaghmede, Dublin, in June 2015.
Mr Justice MacGrath delivered judgment on 2 April 2019. Mr Morris had appealed a Circuit Court decision made on 26 February 2018 dismissing his claims against McDonald’s Restaurant of Ireland Limited, Renaissance Security Services Limited and an unidentified female security guard. He alleged defamation, trespass and breach of duty. The defendants denied the claims and had also objected that his civil bill did not adequately set out their nature and grounds.
Mr Morris said a security guard, Suzanne Campbell, approached him after he put used serviettes on a nearby table. He said she spoke to him aggressively and that teenagers nearby mocked him. He argued that Ms Campbell’s conduct and delay in stopping their comments contributed to the incident, and that she had unfairly profiled him. He also complained that teenagers later took his phone and that the defendants handled his subsequent complaint poorly.
Ms Campbell disputed that she ordered him to pick up the serviettes or failed to ask the teenagers to stop. The restaurant manager, Mr Gondek, gave evidence about the refund and the events that followed. The judgment records that the teenagers made offensive comments and that one took Mr Morris’s phone. The court did not view the available CCTV footage.
The judge accepted that Mr Morris had come to Ms Campbell’s attention before the serviette incident and understood why he might believe she had profiled him. But he found that the evidence did not establish that her intervention was prompted by Mr Morris’s appearance: in his assessment, the serviette incident prompted it. He described the escalation as largely involving a clash of personalities and found Ms Campbell’s approach may have seemed overly officious.
The court concluded that the teenagers were responsible for their own comments, and that Ms Campbell intervened in a timely way. It found no basis to attribute the phone-taking or any resulting loss to the defendants. It also held that dissatisfaction with the defendants’ handling of Mr Morris’s complaint was a customer relations issue and did not establish a legal cause of action.
The judge found that Mr Morris had not discharged the burden of proof. He refused the appeal, leaving the Circuit Court’s dismissal in place. The judgment does not grant any relief to Mr Morris.