A 36-year-old woman who was knocked down stairs as bouncers put an unruly patron out of a pub claimed €750,000 for future loss of earnings but a High Court judge did not relate her most serious complaints to the fall.
Mr Justice Michael Twomey awarded Helen Boland of Midleton, County Cork, more than €25,000 for general damages for neck and ankle injuries and more than €20,000 special damages, making a total of more €46,000. However, he did not attribute the plaintiff’s serious back injury or depression to the fall.
John Lucey, senior counsel for the defendant company, Rearden’s of Washington Street, told Mr Justice Twomey after the judgement was handed down that there had been a tender offered in settlement of the case before it went to trial. Mr Lucey said this tender would have certain implications for the question of costs.
The plaintiff’s senior counsel James O’Mahony asked for an adjournment of the decision in relation to costs and the judge acceded to that application.
The accident at the centre of the case happened six years ago, on November 19, 2010. Ms Boland was accidentally knocked by doormen ejecting a patron from the pub causing her to fall down four or five steps.
Initially, the plaintiff experienced an ankle injury and soft tissue injury to the neck. However, she later developed a back injury.
There was a lot of conflicting evidence in the course of the seven days of evidence at the High Court sitting in Cork about whether the back injury was simply a naturally-occurring injury or one that was attributable to the fall.
The back injury was so severe it required surgery and injections, and morphine patches for pain relief.
After citing a number of conflicts between various medical practitioners, Mr Justice Twomey said during his judgement that in his view the lower back pain and depression were not caused by the fall in Rearden’s bar.
The most significant aspect of the plaintiff’s claim was future loss of earnings as a result of the injuries which the judge did not attribute to the fall. He only awarded her in respect of general damages for neck and ankle and some loss of earnings in the first year after the accident.
The plaintiff was in the Irish Navy for ten years but had moved on to other employment prior to the date of the accident.
More recently she did a degree at CIT in human resource management.
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