A 25-year-old law student, who claimed she broke her left little finger and lost her nail when a “heavy” store door slammed on her hand, has lost a €60,000 damages claim in the Circuit Civil Court.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane said she was satisfied the entrance door at Polonez, on Cork Street, Dublin, had not been defective and that Laurentia Racu had been the author of her own misfortune.
The judge said Ms Racu claimed that in November 2013 she had used the handle on the store door to push it open, before walking in and turning around to close the door with her left hand.
She said her left little finger had been caught in the closing edge of the door, with her nail left hanging off.
She had later been taken by ambulance to St James’s Hospital, where X-rays revealed a fracture in her finger.
Racu, with an address at The Mill, Riversquare, Dublin, claimed the door had been heavy and had swung back in a “speedy” manner.
She had been working as a hotel receptionist at the time and had to take a week off work following the incident.
The judge said Ms Racu had said in evidence that she had been familiar with the store and had been concerned about the door swinging back and hitting someone.
The judge said it was the defendant’s case that Ms Racu had been hesitant when she entered the store and had been trying to remove earphones from her ears as she walked in.
Denial
The store had denied the door had been altered when a joint engineers’ inspection took place last year.
It claimed Ms Racu had been inattentive and careless when her “unfortunate” accident happened.
The judge told Sarah Corcoran, for Modern House Ltd, which owns the store, that the joint inspection had revealed no defect in the door.
The judge said it was very clear from the engineering evidence that the door had handles both on the outside and on the inside.
“If Ms Racu was so concerned about the door swinging back and hitting somebody, although there was no one behind her, she should have used the inside handle,” the judge said.
The judge dismissed Ms Racu’s case and awarded legal costs against her.