A TAXI driver has lost his claim for damages after an extraordinary drama in a dole office in Dublin when he was confronted by a man threatening to hang himself and his son with a chain.
The Circuit Civil Court had heard how Noel Brazil had helped to take the strain of a heavy 1.98m (6ft 6in) man with a child in his arms in a bid to stop a chain snapping around their necks. Mr Brazil (53), Conquer Hill Road, Clontarf, Dublin, said he had been waiting for a fare in the office when a heated dispute broke out between a very tall, heavy-set man and a member of staff.
The man had produced a chain and had shouted: "You won't starve me and my family. I will kill myself and my family first."
He had taken his young son in his arms and then stood up on a chair. He then proceeded to wrap a chain around both their necks and attached it to a bracket on a pillar. Mr Brazil said he saw the chair wobble as the man, not identified in court, had attempted to kick it from under himself. He ran to help and took the weight of both the man and the child until staff came to his aid. Mr Brazil, who claimed he suffered injuries, lost a claim yesterday for €38,000 damages against the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs. Judge Jacqueline Linnane said the attempted double hanging in North Cumberland Street employment exchange in Dublin had happened so fast that such an extraordinary event could not have been anticipated by the defendant. She told Ronan Dolan, counsel for the Minister, that the State was entitled to its legal costs against Mr Brazil.
Mr Brazil said he had ruptured a muscle in his chest and, because of the incident, had to have an old hip prosthesis renewed earlier than doctors had planned.
Judge Linnane said the issue was whether the Minister had been negligent in having brought about a situation of actual or apparent danger in circumstances where it would have been reasonably foreseeable that a person such as the plaintiff could suffer injury. Mr Brazil had accepted it had been an out-of-the-ordinary event which had lasted for only a minute and a half. The judge said it was an unusual situation which was unforeseeable.