A drunken man crippled for life when he fell off a pub's bar stool should not be entitled to compensation, the landlord's lawyer argued in the High Court in Belfast yesterday.
Mr Andrew Donaldson QC, submitted that Mr William Joy (37) had failed to prove that he broke his neck when he fell off the stool in the Copper Room, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, in 1989.
Mr Donaldson, appearing for publican Mr Michael Newell, who denies liability, urged Mr Justice Campbell to dismiss the action after the conclusion of Mr Joy's case yesterday.
Mr Joy, a former butcher, from Princess Avenue, Cookstown, is a virtual quadraplegic and now gets around in a wheelchair.
The court has already heard that he had taken 13 vodkas and four pints of beer elsewhere before going into the Copper Room.
He was so drunk he could not even remember going in - let alone the fall from the stool which ruined his life.
But Mr Joy's lawyers claimed the landlord was negligent by allowing him to sit on the stool knowing he was drunk.
Mr Donaldson said there was no evidence that Mr Joy was seen falling from the stool. Other drinkers had said he appeared to be drunk when he came into the pub and sat on the stool.
He said one witness had told of hearing a scraping noise as the stool moved on the floor but no one had actually seen him fall.
"The first indication that anything was wrong was when Mr Joy was seen lying on the floor," said Mr Donaldson. "But there was no evidence that the stool was dangerous or that it had toppled over.
"The case made on behalf of the plaintiff is that he was sitting on the stool apparently drunk and asleep and that a bar person should have got him off the stool for his own safety.
"But for him to succeed in this case he has to prove that he sustained the injury by falling off the stool and we say there is insufficient evidence that he sustained the injury at that time."
The hearing will continue today when Mr John Gillen QC (instructed by John J. McNally and Co) replies on Mr Joy's behalf.