A judge has voiced his concern about the inflated expectations of the general public in their use of public places and large stores.
"People think they have a right to surface smoothness of billiard-table quality," Judge Liam Devally said in the Circuit Civil
Court yesterday in Dublin.
He reduced a £16,000 award for damages to a Co Dublin woman by one-third because he held she was partly responsible for her own misfortune when she slipped and fell in a Quinnsworth store.
Mrs Diane Hill, of Stradbrook Park, Blackrock, claimed her fall in the company's Lower Baggot Street store had been caused by spilt liquid on the floor of a shopping aisle. She broke her right arm and left ankle.
Mr Feargal Kavanagh, counsel for the store, said the area of the fall had been cleaned only seven minutes prior to the fall.
Judge Devally said prudence demanded that people keep a proper look-out for themselves. He said that "I don't think people are entitled to billiardtable smoothness or total adhesion to surfaces", he said