Woman sues over fall in Lillie’s Bordello nightclub

A woman who broke her wrist when she allegedly tripped on stairs at Lillie's Bordello nightclub in Dublin has sued in the High Court.

Rachael Sheridan told the court on Friday she was leaving the nightclub at about 3am when her heel got caught and she fell to the bottom of a six step set of stairs.

“I was in immediate pain in my left wrist. I was panicked: it looked disfigured, the bones in my wrist were protruding,” she told Mr Justice Michael Hanna.

A beauty account manager, Ms Sheridan said she was wearing regular high heel sling backs .

When the shoes were shown to the judge, he said they appeared to be a standard pair of high heel shoes as regularly seen in a nightclub or walking in the corridors of the Four Courts. “They are not stilts,” the judge added.

Ms Sheridan told the court she later had to have an operation on her wrist, was in a cast for five weeks and was out of work in total for six weeks as a result of the accident on May 19th, 2013.

She said had cooked dinner for a friend that evening and they had “a couple of glasses of wine” before meeting two friends in a city pub where she had one beer. She said one of her friends wanted to dance and they went to the nightclub and she had a “couple of drinks.”

At about 3am, she said she went looking for her friends as she wanted to go home. She said she was stepping from the first to the second step on a flight of stairs when her heel got caught.

Ms Sheridan (39), of Darley Court, Palatine Square, Arbour Hill, Dublin, has sued Noyfield Ltd with offices at Nassau Street, Dublin and trading as Lillie’s Bordello, Grafton Street, Dublin as a result of the accident.

She has claimed the stairs at the nightclub were fitted with anti-slip nosing which was defective and which constituted a dangerous slip and trip hazard.

She also claims failure to ensure the anti-slip nosing was curved and tucked in against the carpet to prevent shoes snagging on the lip.

She claims she is significantly limited in her everyday tasks and activities as a result of her injuries and her ability to progress in her career has been affected.

Noyfield denies the claims and contends Ms Sheridan was wearing inapprorpriate footwear and had allegedly consumed sufficient alcohol so as to impair her ability to negotiate stairs.

In evidence Ms Sheridan said she suffers pain and has a complex regional pain syndrome since the accident. She told the court she “was well within her faculties” as she left the nightclub.

The case continues next week.