A woman who claimed she suffered back pain after slipping on the deck of an Irish Ferries ship, the MV Normandy, had her action for damages struck out with no order at the High Court yesterday.
Ms Myriam Demaine Harold (35), a French national who was living in Celbridge, Co Kildare, at the time of the accident on August 10th, 1998, said she had slipped on the deck while carrying her one-year-old child in her right arm.
Her three-year-old child was holding her hand on her left side as she walked along.
After she slipped, she said she felt a really big pain and her breathing stopped. She had difficulty speaking. Her children had panicked. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Cherbourg.
Ms Harold said she had experienced problems with her back.
Six months later, she still could not do housework. Two years after the accident, her back had started to improve but sometimes she would still have pain, she said.
Cross-examined by Mr Kieran Fleck SC, for Irish Ferries, Ms Harold said that, as far as she could remember, the surface on which she had slipped was wet. She could not say for sure.
Mr Justice de Valera said he would be taking into account the fact that the plaintiff had two children with her and also that she could not say why she fell. He noted the onus was on the plaintiff to establish her case on the balance of probabilities and remarked that, in his view, as the case stood before him, this was well below the 50 per cent mark.
After a short adjournment, the judge was told that the matter could be struck out with no order.