A DUBLIN woman has failed in her High Court personal injuries action against Dublin Corporation.
Regina Felloni (20) claimed that while she was living with her aunt, Ms Evelyn Carroll, at Bridgefoot Street, Dublin, she lost part of her left middle finger when her hand caught in the front door of her aunt's corporation-owned flat.
The accident happened on February 20th, 1991, when she was closing the hall door of the flat which, she claimed, was in a defective and dangerous condition.
Mr Justice Morris, however, disallowed the claim, saying Felloni's aunt had not brought forward evidence that she had made complaints to the corporation that a handle for the door was required.
The judge said that even a year after the incident, Ms Carroll did nothing about having a handle put on the door to ensure that a similar accident did not happen again.
Felloni, in evidence, said she closed the door by putting her fingers behind it, pulling it sharply and getting her fingers out of the way before the door slammed shut.
On February 20th, 1991, she tried the manoeuvre but held on to the door for too long, losing the top of her finger on her left hand.
She claimed the corporation had failed under the 1966 Housing Act to provide a house reasonably fit for human habitation because of its failure to provide a handle on the door so it could be safely shut.
The judge said he was satisfied that when the corporation handed over the flat to Ms Carroll the defect was not present.
The remains of what was a knocker was obvious in photographs produced by the corporation.
He was satisfied that, over time and use, the knocker had become defective. He was also satisfied that the corporation was not made aware of any such defect.
He accepted with some reservation part of Ms Carroll's evidence in which she said that at some stage a friend had put a bolt on the door.
She had not, however, seen it as necessary in the interests of safety to have a knob on the door and had not got in touch with the corporation or had her neighbour put a knob on the door.