The High Court awarded Marie Dicker €25,060 in damages after finding that being trapped in a lift at The Square Town Centre in Tallaght caused her psychiatric injury.
The incident happened on 31 August 2012. Dicker and her young son were travelling down from the third floor when the lift stopped and its doors would not open. She pressed the alarm, called for help and contacted emergency services. A security staff member eventually forced the doors open. CCTV showed that she was trapped for four minutes and 35 seconds, rather than the roughly 20 minutes she recalled.
Liability was not disputed, and no contributory negligence was alleged. The trial concerned the injury and damages. Dicker said she had been distressed after the incident and developed anxiety, claustrophobia and a fear of lifts and enclosed spaces. She continued working as a department store supervisor and missed no work. She began monthly counselling with clinical psychologist Dr Caroline Goldsmith in August 2014.
Goldsmith diagnosed an adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood, and later described symptoms suggestive of post-traumatic stress disorder, though Dicker did not meet the criteria for a full diagnosis. She reported improvement with therapy but continued to have some fears. Goldsmith expected treatment to continue for another 12 to 18 months and considered a full recovery likely.
The defendants’ consultant psychiatrist, Dr John O’Connor, said he found no psychological disorder or psychiatric illness when he examined Dicker once in July 2016. He questioned whether her symptoms amounted to an adjustment disorder. The judge preferred Goldsmith’s evidence, noting her monthly contact with Dicker since 2014, compared with O’Connor’s single assessment almost four years after the accident.
The judge found that the accident had exacerbated or brought back claustrophobia Dicker had experienced as a child. He rejected the defendants’ argument that the case was governed by a prior decision concerning an irrational fear of future injury. He was satisfied that Dicker had suffered psychiatric injury as a direct result of being trapped. He also found that a significant proportion of her past and future counselling addressed the underlying childhood claustrophobia and anxiety, which the defendants had not caused.
The court awarded €20,000 in general damages and €5,060 in special damages for counselling and travel expenses, including future expenses. The total award was €25,060.