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A 27-YEAR-OLD HOSPITALITY worker, who needed to use a scribe to complete her college exams after crushing her right wrist in a fridge door, has been awarded damages against Dunnes Stores in the Circuit Civil Court.
Alison Leavey told the court that in May 2010, she had been working in Dunnes Stores, Portmarnock, Co Dublin, and had gone to get a box of doughnuts in the bakery walk-in fridge.
Leavey told her barrister, Jim McArdle, that she had been leaving the fridge, holding the sliding door with her right hand while carrying the box in her left, when she slipped on a puddle of water and fell.
Her body had landed outside the fridge and her right wrist was crushed when the door closed back on it. She had felt immediate pain in her wrist which became swollen.
She told the court that “everyone, including me, knew the floor was always wet in the fridge because of a leaking pipe”. She said she had to be careful when walking in the fridge but the store had been busy that day.
Leavey, of Onward Close, Portmarnock, had been attended by staff before being taken to the emergency department at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where x-rays revealed no fracture.
Mr McArdle told Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke that Ms Leavey, who was studying hospitality at the time, suffered soft tissue injuries and had been obliged to use a scribe to complete her final exams.
Dunnes Stores had denied negligence and claimed no leak had been reported.
Judge Groarke, awarding her €15,000 damages and costs, said he found Ms Leavey to be an honest and compelling witness and was satisfied there had been moisture on the floor.
He said she had felt discomfort in her wrist for several months and had experienced difficulty while lifting objects and cutting with a knife.
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Who’s mammy and daddy left who the most. Let the battles begin!
@Dan The Man: Yeah,keep telling yourself that.typical Irish attitude towards success and hard work.We must be the worst begrudging nation on earth.
@Dan The Man: Just because you didn’t make it very far in life, doesn’t mean others can’t either. You just assume that anyone with something decent was just given to them. Is that your coping mechanism because you can’t admit there is people who work harder than you and make better decisions?
@John Paul: well that’s one way to look at it, but you can see how such shows might really grate on those that haven’t been able to afford a house. I am in fact lucky enough to have purchased a house I can afford but I do wonder when we might see a tent or a temporary type of house on the show. Doesn’t fit the narrative though.
This is tat, pure and simple, but it’s par for the course with RTE!
This abomination along with the other shitshow cheap Irish homes have to be the worst ever attempt by RTE at entertainment.
@Sea Spirit: Why don’t they give updates or tell you what home the people featured, make a bid on. What’s the point of it all!
@Sea Spirit: A stop Dathai should be on this show aswell for god sake he’s brilliant oh Frank
Hugh Wallace makes me nauseas ‘Hooooooome of the year’… while the majority of us hard working people can’t even afford the circular red pillow to put in our ‘favourite place’. Yup rub it in please Man just a little bit more.
@J B: No fair enough JB and thank you for that x You must be so proud of your children that’s amazing x You’re right in fairness, I need to get over my resentments it’s just hard because genuinely worked so hard and lost everything. There I go again with the self pity!! Sorry JB and thanks again for your reply x
@Donna Fallon: As all the evidence shows, Irish people have never been better off financially. Look at car sales, holidays etc. There are always people who get left behind or endure bad circumstances etc but they are definitely not the majority
@Brian M: Yup there certainly are people who get left behind I agree but our obsession with property porn in this Country is quite unsettling. I personally find it distasteful. Just an opinion.
Love the show and the judges. It is amazing what people can do on very little as in the converted shop in Tipperary. Gorgeous home full of personality.
@Suzanne Phelan: I prefer those to the ones that obviously just had more money than taste thrown into them, everything to the max size, but minimal and sterile at the same time.
Home of the year …
I blame Duncan Stewart and his show “our house” with rté which started in the mid 90s for the start of the property boom. Just looat the graph 1996 / 2008 \ 2014 / 2025
@P. V. Aglue: Ah Drunken Duncan. There’s a name I haven’t seen in a while
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