A CALIFORNIA-BASED conductor and composer who claimed he fractured a bone in his leg after a “big, heavy” drunk woman fell on him at Renards nightclub in Dublin has settled his High Court action against the club.
Renards denied liability for the incident, and alleged Derek Gleeson fell as a result of drink and had been asked to leave the premises prior to the incident.
The court was told Mr Gleeson (45), with an address at Palmerstown, Dublin, but based in California, is a self-employed conductor and composer with a philharmonic orchestra who also conducts for movie scores.
The case opened yesterday but, after lunch, Richard Kean SC, for Mr Gleeson, told Mr Justice Vivian Lavan it had been settled on terms and could be struck out.
In opening the case, Mr Kean said his client had been “utterly sober”, while the woman involved had been “quite intoxicated”.
In evidence, Mr Gleeson said he was in Renards on South Frederick Street on January 25th, 2005, and was walking towards the bathroom when a large woman came “flying” at him from the left.
“She fell down on top of me. I was in excruciating pain. I felt the full force of her body on top of me. She was big and heavy on top of me and she was screaming. I never saw her again.” He said the house manager was called and he was brought by ambulance to hospital.
As a result of the incident, he said he had a plate and screws inserted into a fractured bone in his leg, and required a bone graft.
He was detained for 10 days and was on morphine for most of this period. He said the plate would be there forever, and agreed with his counsel there was an “unsightly scar” on his leg as a result of what happened to him.
Under cross-examination by Sasha Gayer, for the club, Mr Gleeson denied he had been asked to leave the club.
He denied a member of the bar staff had told him he was intoxicated and asked him to go home.
Mr Gleeson said Renards had a strong door policy and, if that had been the case, they would not have allowed him in. He denied he was dancing at the time of the incident.
Counsel suggested the club’s general manager was on his way to ask Mr Gleeson to leave when he saw him fall and would say he did not see a large woman standing against Mr Gleeson, and that nobody pushed him or fell on him.
Mr Gleeson replied: “A woman fell on me and caused injury. She was saying ‘I am sorry, I am sorry’; I never saw her again.”
He said he had never returned to his normal activity or got back to normal after the incident.
A friend of Mr Gleeson, Deborah Smith of Portobello Bridge, Dublin, said she knew him for 13 years and had met him for a drink late that evening in the Hairy Lemon pub. He had only two pints of Guinness there at most before going on to Renards, she said.
She had decided to go home and get something to eat and did not accompany him to the club.
The then owner of the premises, Robbie Fox, was in court yesterday.
Engleson Ltd, trading as Renards nightclub, denied Mr Gleeson was caused to fall as a result of being pushed by another customer or because the floor of the club was in any way unsafe or defective, as alleged.
It also denied the dance floor was overcrowded and dangerous at the time of the incident.