A HIGH COURT judge has suggested that commercial sanctions should be taken by the Irish travel industry against hotel and apartment owners in foreign holiday resorts if they refuse to co-operate in tragic accident cases.
Mr Justice John Hedigan said the court was powerless to direct a Turkish hotel owner and Turkey’s public prosecution office to preserve the scene of an accident where a Co Mayo student nurse fell to her death from a fifth-floor balcony last month.
Complimenting Budget Travel Ltd for already having put pressure on the owner of the holiday complex in Kusadasi to preserve the window and balcony from which student nurse Mary Linnane fell, the judge refused to grant an order directing the Dublin-based travel firm to preserve and grant inspection of the scene.
He said that because Turkey was outside the European Union it was beyond the court’s powers and those of Budget Travel to force anyone in Kusadasi to preserve the scene and allow expert inspection.
Ms Linnane (20), Derrycorrib, Glencastle, Belmullet, Co Mayo, fell to her death early on July 22nd. Her father Martin Linnane had asked the court to direct Budget Travel Ltd to preserve and allow inspection of the scene.
Despite being unable to make the order, Mr Justice Hedigan told Budget Travel: “Your company is part of the travel industry with infinitely greater power than the applicant and if property owners don’t co-operate in circumstances of tragic accidents, I trust sanctions would be taken.”
Robert Beatty, counsel for Mr Linnane, said she was one of a group of 12 holidaymakers in the apartment complex at the time.
Mr Beatty said the window on to the balcony from which she fell had been open at the time and the hinges were defective. He said no repairs should be made to the window or balcony until the scene had been inspected by an engineer.
Shane English, counsel for Budget Travel, said the problem was that the travel firm did not own or occupy the hotel apartments. He said Budget Travel could do nothing to allow experts to inspect the scene.
A court order directing the Dublin firm to do something would do nothing except put the company at risk of being in contempt of court.
Mr Justice Hedigan said the Turkish authorities were investigating a possible criminal prosecution. He said they and the prosecutor’s office had control of the matter and would allow no one on to the site of the accident.
The court had been told that an inspection had been carried out and that a report had been prepared for the public prosecutor.This would not be released until a decision had been made regarding the criminal investigation, he said.
While the court could not make any order which could be enforced in Turkey, the judge said he hoped that Budget Travel would share any report it received with Mr Linnane. He urged Budget Travel to keep up the pressure for preservation of the scene.
Mr English said Budget Travel would maintain every pressure on the owner of the complex to grant inspection and if the company could obtain a copy of the prosecutor’s report, it would be shared with Mr Linnane.