A building supplies company could not be held responsible for a freak accident in its yard, a judge held yesterday.
The Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Esmond Smyth, said that for very understandable reasons people sometimes attributed what was in fact an accident to a legal liability on somebody else.
Dismissing a claim by a retired book-binder, Mr Patrick Nolan (63), for up to £30,000 damages against Mulveys, High Street, Dundrum, Mr Justice Smyth said a severe and painful injury to his left leg had been due to an unfortunate accident caused by a gust of wind. Mr Nolan, of Gledswood Park, Clonskeagh, Dublin, told Mr Michael Byrne, counsel for Mulveys, that two 8 ft by 4 ft sheets of chipboard toppled over on his leg. They had been placed against a car by a customer while loading and they had blown over as he walked past.
A weather report for the day in question revealed south-westerly fresh winds gusting from 20 to 40 m.p.h.
Mr Justice Smyth said the duty of an occupier was to take reasonable care that someone on the premises was not injured by some foreseeable negligence on his or her part. What happened had been an accident for which blame could not be attributed in law to the defendants. He commended the company for not having sought its legal costs in the circumstances.