Man awarded €35,250 damages for Fallon and Byrne fall

A man who fractured his foot after falling on stairs when returning to a Dublin city centre restaurant after a cigarette break has been awarded €35,250 damages.

Mr Justice Michael Moriarty found John Reilly was one third responsible, and the restaurant two thirds culpable, for the accident.

The judge said Mr Reilly displayed "a somewhat cavalier" approach as he had sought to bound or skip up two steps when half way up the stairs to the Fallon and Byrne restaurant at Exchequer Street.

Awarding Mr Reilly €35,250, the judge said he was satisfied the stairs leading to the restaurant did constitute a danger or potential danger in what was at the time very bad wet weather.

He was satisfied there must also be a finding of contributory negligence which was not “trifling or minuscule”.

Other people, including a woman with comparatively high heels, had walked up and down the stairs after the accident, the judge said. When the incident happened, it was Mr Reilly’s fifth time being on the stairs that night, he added.

The judge said the parties had calculated damages at €51,375 if Mr Reilly was fully successful on liability. Deducting one third from that figure, the award should be €35,250, he said.

John Reilly (49), a telecommunications consultant of Granitefield, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin had sued Fallon and Byrne Ltd, Exchequer Street, Dublin as a result of the fall on February 19th, 2011.

He claimed the company failed to provide any grip on the steps of the stairs leading to its 120 seater restaurant and also alleged the steps were wet. He suffered two fractures to his left foot as a result of the fall, the court heard.

The defendant denied all the claims, denied the stairs were wet and claimed it was Mr Reilly’s own misjudgment which caused his fall. It pleaded contributory negligence on grounds he had been “skipping” up two steps at the time of the accident.

In his evidence, Mr Reilly said he had gone to the restaurant with his wife and a number of friends. It was a wet night and had been raining that day, he said.

Shortly before midnight, he said he went out the front of the building for a cigarette break and was making his way back to the restaurant upstairs when the accident happened.

He said he was halfway up the stairs when he felt his foot slipping, he fell forward and his left foot got caught in the gap between the steps.

When Joseph McGettigan SC put it to Mr Reilly he had been taking two steps at a time and it was his own misjudgment which caused the fall, Mr Reilly said he did not think so and said the steps were wet. When suggested the fall would not have happened had he taken one step at a time, Mr Reilly said he did not accept that.