The High Court has awarded £43,500 damages and costs to a Dublin postman who claimed he suffered back problems from delivering post through low letter boxes.
The action against An Post was taken by Mr Ian Barclay (43), of Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, a postman in the Rathmines and Terenure areas.
Low letter boxes have been a problem in Ireland since the 1960s and their frequency has increased in recent years, the High Court was told.
Mrs Justice McGuinness said it could only be hoped that cases such as Mr Barclay's would persuade the legislature to take relevant action over low post boxes.
"If one thing emerges from the evidence in this case it is that there is in fact no practical satisfactory answer to this problem other than to eliminate low letter boxes," she said.
An Post had received numerous complaints from the post workers' trade union and from individual deliverers about door design. It was accepted by An Post that the positioning of letter boxes a few inches from the ground caused both extreme inconvenience and was also a hazard to the health and safety of postal deliverers.
"A moment's thought would convince one that this form of door design is totally contrary to common sense," she said.
Mr Barclay's back injuries originated in June 1993 when he was delivering mail to a house at Greenlea Place, Terenure, which was fitted with a very low level box. He was out of work for a period and received medical treatment.
In October 1993 he delivered post to a new development of 350 houses at Mount Argus, Dublin. All had low level letter boxes. His back injuries returned. He had to have surgery and was out of work until the end of February 1994.
The judge said the problem had been raised in the Dail by the late Mr James Tully TD as early as 1971. The hazard was therefore known to An Post and the risk was a foreseeable one.
Over many years efforts had been made to deal with the problem through the building or the planning codes. It was true that until the early 1980s or the early 1990s those efforts were somewhat lethargic and some blame for that attached to An Post.
But the main difficulty, in her view, lay with other bodies in whose hands the remedy lay - the Oireachtas and the Department of the Environment.
The judge said it appeared it was not until December 1993 that the Department of the Environment finally informed An Post that the problem was "an operational matter for An Post and therefore outside the ambit of both planning and building controls".
This information was conveyed 16 years after the query was first raised by the postal authorities, Mrs Justice McGuinness said. "In fairness, the postal authorities cannot be blamed for the dilatoriness or the negative attitude of the Department of the Environment."
Mrs Justice McGuinness said that up to the time of Mr Barclay's injury in June 1993, An Post had taken reasonable care in the circumstances to deal with the undoubted hazard. The judge said that Mr Paul Romeril, a consultant engineer who gave evidence on behalf of Mr Barclay, had claimed that low letter boxes were prevalent where glazed "storm porches" had been added to houses. They were also to be found in new townhouse developments. Mr Romeril had pointed out that doors for new developments were bought in bulk from joinery manufacturers and the industry was very competitive. Minor cost savings in door manufacture could be made where the letter boxes were placed at the bottom of the door. This eliminated the need for a strong cross timber at waist level.
Mr Romeril had felt that if standard regulations were made and enforced on all new buildings the problem could be solved as all joinery manufacturers and builders would have to conform. Otherwise An Post could threaten to refuse to deliver the post.
The engineer had also dealt with the need for training of post deliverers to avoid back injury which would result from awkwardly placed letter boxes. Mr Romeril had queried the wisdom of allowing Mr Barclay, who already had a back injury, to deliver post where all 350 letter boxes were low.
The difficulty in reaching low letter boxes was compounded by the fact that the postman was simultaneously carrying a mail bag weighing on average 35lbs. All the post delivery witnesses had claimed An Post management took little of no notice of their complaints.
Mr Rory Delany of the Communications Workers' Union felt that householders should be notified that letters would not be delivered where the box was too low and unsafe.
Mr Michael McCabe, former An Post manager of special projects, gave a detailed account of efforts made to deal with the problem. A great deal of effort had gone into contacting the Department of the Environment, the Health and Safety Authority and other statutory bodies with a view to introducing regulations on the height of letter boxes.
Contact had also been made with professional bodies such as the Construction Industry Federation and the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.