Judge throws out €60k damages claim against popular Dublin pub The Goat by waitress who slipped

The claim had been taken by then 20-year-old Rhianne Forde, now 27, of Woodlawn Park Grove, Firhouse, Dublin, against the Lower Kilmacud Road premises owned by well-known publican Charlie Chawke.

The Premier League comparison regarding slip resistance was made by a forensic engineer who had afterwards examined the spot where Ms Forde had slipped.

Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain had heard that Forde had not mentioned her complaint to her GP until 18 months after her fall while attending her doctor about another problem.

She told the court she had felt her injury would clear up of its own accord and had continued her part-time work at The Goat.

She said that on the night she fell she had reached the bottom step of a stairway and had stepped onto the floor where she had slipped.

She said the floor was wet and when she had been helped to her feet by a work colleague she had noticed her clothes had been wet.

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She told barrister Grainne Larkin, counsel for Charjos investments, Terenure, which trades as The Goat, that it was only 18 months after her fall that she had noticed a problem with her wrist.

She had been doing a lot of typing at the time for her masters and had just taken up driving,

Ms Forde said her injury had come against her because of these activities and it was then in June 2019 that she had spoken to her doctor about her injury.

Judge Ni Chulachain said employers had a duty to take reasonable care for the safety of their employees and the general public but she could not ignore the evidence that the slip resistance of the floor on which Ms Forde had fallen had been described to the floor as in “the Premier League Class.”

The judge dismissed the claim but made no order for costs against Ms Forde.