Hairdresser Annette O’Connor has been awarded for something that has happened to many diners. When O’Connor was shown a table in The Mullingar Park Hotel restaurant, she sat down and hit her knee on the leg of the table. Since the leg was not covered by the table cloth, Justice Mary Faherty upheld the prior damages and increased it to €20,000 and costs for the hidden danger.
O’Connor booked Mother’s Day weekend at The Mullingar Park Hotel with five friends in March 2011. She was shown to their table by the restaurant manager. The manager pulled out her chair and she then sat down and pulled her chair under the table. That caused her knee to hit the table leg. She finished the meal but saw a doctor later. She insisted that knee pain interfered with her work as a hairdresser.
The case turned on liability for hidden dangers and the negligence of not warning O’Connor. It further insisted placing a table cloth to cover the legs was “a reckless or careless and inattentive manner.”
The hotel also argued contributory negligence but the court ruled that it could not be applied to the O’Connor because the restaurant specifically directed her to the table and, so directed, was not expected to make a unilateral investigation of the underside of the table.
Anonemouse, right on. Nobody is responsible for their actions anymore.
” Nobody is responsible for their actions anymore.”
On the contrary, what this says is that some else is responsible for their actions – usually the one with the deepest pockets. How convenient.
BTW, once I bumped my knee … and it hurt really, really bad. Any lawyers have any ideas?
The judiciary has always been a plague on mankind. I suggest it is too much power in the hands of two few. Every despotic ruler or oligarchy in history has had a kangaroo court for their entertainment.
This is a fun case. “Since the leg was not covered by the table cloth, Justice Mary Faherty upheld the prior damages and increased it to €20,000 and costs for the hidden danger.” It was the other way around: The leg was completely covered by the table cloth according the the linked news article. Here’s a link to the hotel website which shows the restaurant’s accouterments (including floor length table cloths):
http://www.mullingarparkhotel.com/
It seems to me hotel restaurant personnel had a duty to warn patrons about table legs. Without a warning, Ms. O’Connor could certainly have assumed the table was supported by a center post rather than legs. Despite this, not thinking of a table leg bumping against her knee might be her fault, even if it’s less her fault than restaurant personnel’s for not clarifying this.
That’s why comparative negligence of the parties should be the law rather than contributory negligence of the victim (as the hotel’s complete or partial defense of the lawsuit) is a better way to decide such cases.
injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/contributory-and-comparative-negligence.html
Sidenote: I never knew there was a need for wine glasses at Irish table settings.
http://www.personalizationmall.com/cat_image/300/14188-31866.jpg
http://www.personalizationmall.com/cat_image/165/14203-31895.jpg
Gotta love the Irish.
Insanity here, there, and everywhere.
‘Affluenza’ teen’s father found guilty of impersonating a police officer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/15/affluenza-teens-father-found-guilty-of-impersonating-a-police-officer/
Insane speech control laws are spreading from Europe to the US; and now our dreaded tort system is crossing the pond to Europe.
It’s another indication, in case we need one, that the legal profession are in business for themselves and that the judiciary attracts fools and jack-wagons who succor the world’s chronic complainers.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”
No, kill the judges. And the BigLaw attorneys. And the law professors. And a fat chunk of the plaintiff’s personal injury bar. And the abusive prosecutors. You should leave ordinary lawyers alone.
dss;
Hey, that’s me you’re talking about!!
Tables in Ireland apparently levitate magically or are held up by soft, pudgy leprechauns! How is anyone to know to expect vertical hard columns beneath a flat rectangular platform commonly used for dining? Seriously, there must be more to this story (as in the McDonalds case). Were there sharp spikes on the table legs? Was there a fifth leg lurking in the center where one’s knee would normally land?
I doubt she had 3d degree burns, so the McDonald’s case does not apply.
I just returned from London with a horrible sinus infection. If European courts are that easy perhaps I should sue the British Government for allowing sick people to walk the streets of London.
Ireland needs to leave Britain. Irexit. The judge needs to leave Ireland. But not come here.
Ireland cannot leave what they are not a part of.
What’s next a group of 5 orders a pizza and someone gets the smaller piece and then sues?
“Group of five friends.” I would be one less. I broke up with a decade friendship, when ‘the friend’ expected a middle age friend of hers to pickup and install a new washing machine in her basement to save $69, which she could well afford.
Common sense is becoming increasingly uncommon.
If you own a restaurant in say New York City and you have a lot of foreign visitors come in then you must be careful to explain such things as hot food, legs under the table and whatnot. You cannot be discriminatory and have a ban on muslims with headscarfs. But there is one thing you must stand by and state right at the door: But Not The Irish!
You can quote the guy in Blazing Saddles and invoke that at trial.
Loved that movie! Land Snatching!
Insane. Unjust. Appeal.
It’s incredible what people are liable for nowadays, even when it’s vicarious. This reminds me of that situation with the lady who burned herself with the coffee at McDonald’s years ago. How ridiculous!
Matthew Hitch – if you saw the pictures of the thighs of that woman who successfully sued McDonald’s, you would give her all the money she wanted. McDonald’s had been sued several times before. The award was to teach them a lesson.
You need to spend some time reading the case description on the McDonald’s Coffee case. The injuries were horrendous and the coffee was dangerously hot.
In all honesty, I cant stand most of these cases but the McDonalds coffee case was legit. McDonalds was well aware of the hazard and chose to ignore it and the burns were incredibly severe and not only hit her leg but her vagina as well. Had to have a bunch of skin grafts done. She deserved every penny
Anonemouse – the beans that McDonald’s were using were only tasty if heated to a temperature close to boiling. McDonald’s had been warned about this in several damage cases before but chose to ignore it. The damages were a wake-up call to McDonald’s.
What was McDonald’s warned about? That people who spill hot coffee on themselves will sue for their self-inflicted injuries? Would you award compensation to a customer who spilled a Coke drink on their clothes – which left a spot on them?
bill mcwilliams – McDonald’s had been warned that their coffee was at the scalding temperature when handed to customers. It was not drinkable. There had been at least 5 previous trials that found McDonald’s at fault for scalding their customers. The punitive damages were because they had been warned 5 times and not gotten the hint.
McDonald’s didn’t burn the woman – she burned herself. At her age, surely she caveat emptor that coffee is commonly served hot enough that if you spill it on yourself, it can hurt. Volenti non fit injuria
bill mcwilliams – have you actually read about the trial or seen the photos of her injuries? Of course not. Check them out, then get back to me.
PS
Did you actually read what I said – or were you just unable to give a rational argument for why you differ?
bill’s logic:
Person X leaves a loaded gun in their front yard. Child Z picks up gun and promptly shoots and kills someone, hopefully bill if we’re lucky (a little sarcasm which everyone except bill shall highly appreciate).
Person X is free of any guilt, legal, moral, ethical, or otherwise.
Bill – I agree with you that the McDonald’s plaintiff shared quite a bit of the responsibility. She put a hot beverage by her lady parts, holding the flexible cup between her legs, so she was free to drive a moving vehicle which would, of course, jostle the contents. I’m completely with you there.
The chink in the McDonald’s armor was that they had a policy of super heating their coffee, far above what one normally does for coffee. It was something about wringing some decent flavor out of their cheap, pesticide marinaded beans through super heating. Just trying to drink it the moment it was poured was enough to scald you more than you would expect from a fresh, hot pot of coffee. And they had been warned about that previously. Apparently, she suffered wounds more like from a flame thrower than from a hot coffee scald. Their history of ignoring repeated warnings is what got them in trouble, and may have superseded the customer’s bad decision and her own contribution. I STILL think McDonalds should have only been found a percentage responsible.
If the coke was hot enough to raise blisters on the skin, cause 2nd degree burns or melt the synthetic fabric I might.
No comparison to this case, other than they involved restaurants and injuries. I believe you’re speaking of the 1990’s case of Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants which captured headlines. The woman in the coffee case–who was about 80 years old–suffered very serious injuries and was hospitalized for weeks. FYI, although a jury awarded the woman nearly $3 million in damages (mostly punitive damages), the trial judge reduced the final verdict to about $640,000, and the parties settled for a confidential amount before an appeal was decided.
“O’Connor said the manager pulled out a chair at the table to allow her take her seat. She sat down and pulled in her chair to sit comfortably.”
So clearly there was room to sit or the chair would not have been under the table.
In New York City, “man spreading” is a big problem. It appears this might be a case of “woman spreading.”
Ridiculous. It’s the corner of the table. She doesn’t know there’s a leg there, even if she was directed to a seat, even if a table cloth covers the leg? Ridiculous. Is the table floating by magic or suspended by invisible wires? Ridiculous. But of course that’s why you wrote about it. Ridiculous.
May I please say it again? Ridiculous.
The above is based on the table as depicted above. If that is not the actual table, it might not be so ridiculous, but still, she didn’t have to pull her chair in so hard as to injure her knee so gravely.
“Hairdresser Annette O’Connor…”
~+~
Nothing has gone well for Annette since that fateful day back in the 80’s when she cut the hair of her cousin Sinéad.
Darren – Sinead has her hair done by her local farrier.
I am with the court on this one. The business directed the patron to the chair and seated her. The leg was hidden. 1-0 for the patron.