A nurse who slipped on a wet floor during a wedding in a four-star hotel has been awarded €72,000 by a High Court judge.
Pamela Kirby (42) told the court “I was in so much pain, I thought I was going to die” after she fell when exiting a lift in Hotel Kilkenny almost eight years ago.
Ms Kirby dislocated her elbow, hurt her leg and broke bones in her toes in the incident. Her arm and leg were put in casts.
The hotel contended that Ms Kirby was wearing five-inch stilettos and simply lost her balance when her left ankle buckled as she walked to her friend’s wedding banquet. It denied that the floor was wet and slippy.
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Ms Kirby (42), of Glencarra Lawn, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, sued Hotel Kilkenny Ltd, trading as Hotel Kilkenny, College Road, Kilkenny city, as a result of the fall on August 18th, 2018.
Mr Justice Tony O’Connor said it was a “hotly contested claim for damages” but the court was satisfied that, on the balance of probabilities, Ms Kirby slipped on a clear liquid sitting on the tile on which she placed her shoe while walking across from the lift in a hotel lobby.
The judge said there was no dispute that Ms Kirby was entitled to attend the wedding reception in high heels. He said she was entitled to expect that the floor area which she had to cross did not have liquid or that if there was liquid, there would be signs to indicate the floor was wet.
The judge said the hotel side had not satisfied the court that it took the necessary care and for those reasons he ruled it was in breach of its duty of care to Ms Kirby.
The judge said Ms Kirby had satisfied the court that her fall was not caused by a loss of balance due to the wearing of high heels. He noted she had worn them without difficulty to events for six years previously.
Mr Justice O’Connor, who viewed CCTV footage of the incident, said other guests took various steps on exiting the hotel lift and the court was not persuaded that another guest would have noticed, alerted others or slipped on the tile in advance of Ms Kirby coming along.
The judge also noted Ms Kirby’s husband had given evidence that he noticed the ground looked wet while he attended to his wife after the fall.
The judge said Mr Kirby’s observations were particularly relevant and his integrity was not in dispute. His reply that he did not mention liquid on the floor due to his primary concern being for his wife was understandable, the judge said.
Mr Justice O’Connor said the credibility and reliability of Mr Kirby and the candour of his wife had satisfied the court that on the balance of probabilities she slipped on a clear liquid.
In evidence, Ms Kirby told the court she was wearing her own wedding shoes from her 2012 wedding on the occasion. She and her husband had attended the wedding and a drinks reception at the hotel where she had two glasses of wine with ice. The gong for the wedding banquet went at 5.30pm and they went upstairs to the second floor for the wedding meal.
She said the other couples got out of the lift first and she followed with her husband. She said she slipped and fell and landed on her right side.
