Gardaí called over ‘loud and abusive’ family at kids’ movie

GARDAÍ were called to a morning screening of Finding Dory after a family refused to move from plush recliner seats they hadn’t paid for.

The family took an unsuccessful discrimination case against the cinema despite becoming ‘loud and abusive’ and disrupting the film, and forcing cinema-goers to be moved to another screen.

The family had argued that they had been discriminated against on the basis of family status, as they were not provided with accommodation for a child’s buggy.

The family had gone to the cinema on Sunday morning, November 13, 2016, to see Finding Dory. They bought ‘mini morning’ tickets and were told they could sit anywhere they wished as there were only four other people at the screening.

The family then occupied premium recliner seats in the front row which were each €5 dearer. The family was asked by an attendant to move to other seats in the front row or pay the additional €5 per seat.

The family refused to move from and when they failed to do so, the screening was halted.

According to a cinema representative at a case hearing, the father ‘became loud and abusive and demanded a refund, including for part-consumed food’.

Other cinema-goers were taken to a different screen to watch the movie and the loud and abusive behaviour continued, leading to gardaí being called. The mother said the family left the cinema ‘feeling embarrassment and humiliation’.

The cinema stated that there had been no discriminatory treatment and that the reason the family was asked to move was because they had bought the wrong tickets.

In his findings, Workplace Relations Commission adjudication officer Pat Brady was highly critical of the family’s actions and dismissed the claim as ‘vexatious and without any merit whatsoever’.

In his report, Mr Brady said: ‘It is hard to blame the family for sitting in them, but it is harder to believe that they really believed that the rather generalised advice that they could “sit anywhere” included these seats. Perhaps they did.’

Mr Brady said it was ‘extraordinary’ that on being advised of the position, the family refused to move ‘and proceeded to cause something of a fracas in the cinema’.

Mr Brady stated that the mother ‘was being asked to move a matter of a couple of metres, horizontally to accommodation quite suitable for a family’.