€85k for slipping on alcohol in Copper Face Jacks
Bar manager who broke ankle had ‘a few scoops’
‘Bouncers pulled him to his feet’ ‘He has to be fleet of foot’
A MAN who broke his ankle in two places after slipping at Copper Face Jacks has won €87,000 in damages.
Bar manager Colin McNamara claimed the floor was wet from spilled alcohol, and that the Dublin nightclub – described by the judge in the case as ‘legendary’ – was overcrowded.
Awarding the compensation, Judge Michael Hanna said Mr McNamara ‘had a few scoops in the course of the day’ and slipped.
He noted that the case was undefended by Breanagh Catering Ltd, the owners and operators of the Harcourt Street premises.
Mr McNamara, 36, said he had travelled from Limerick to Dublin on October 9, 2015, to watch Ireland play Germany in a soccer match at the Aviva Stadium.
He had a few drinks before the match, and went onto Coppers afterwards. He said the club was ‘overcrowded and messy’ when he arrived. ‘There were a lot of people there who would have been at the match,’ he recalled.
He said he slipped and fell in the basement area at around 1.30am, and that his leg twisted under him. ‘I was chatting to friends. The floor was wet, and I turned to walk and I ended up on the floor,’ the Limerick man said.
He added that two bouncers pulled him to his feet and took him to some double doors leading out to an alley.
‘I said to them, can you call for an ambulance, my leg is broken, but they said no, they would call a medic,’ he recalled. A member of staff came and looked at his ankle, and moved it around, which he said was ‘very sore’.
‘I was told it was not broken, and they couldn’t ring an ambulance,’ Mr McNamara said.
He went back to his hotel in a taxi, where he spent a sleepless night due to the pain. A friend drove him home the following day, where his partner took him to St John’s Hospital in Limerick.
X-rays revealed he had fractured his ankle in two places.
It was put in a cast and he was discharged on crutches, but two weeks later it was decided to operate on the ankle and fix it with a metal plate and screws, the court heard.
He was in a cast for six weeks, and on crutches for eight weeks. He could not work for five months.
Mr McNamara said he still has to take painkillers for the pain and swelling which he suffers following any long shift in his work as a bar manager.
He claimed that the nightclub operators were negligent in failing to maintain a safe premises, with dry and clean floors.
Judge Hanna said the medical evidence was that Mr McNamara had suffered a serious fracture of his fibia and tibia, which was dealt with by the insertion of a plate and screw.
The screw had since been removed, but an MRI scan had revealed the potential development of arthritis in that joint.
In the fullness of time, the judge said, Mr McNamara, from Sycamore Avenue, Rathbane, Co. Limerick, may need pain relieving injections, or a fusion operation, ‘which would impede the plaintiff going about his job’.
He said: ‘The plaintiff, a bar manager from Limerick, went to a match, had a few scoops in the course of the day, and ended up in the defendant’s premises, which is almost legendary. He was there, he slipped on a floor that was wet, presumably from spilled drink.’
The judge said it was a ‘significant injury, particularly with regard to the fact that he has to be fleet of foot as a bar manager.’
He added: ‘I have had regard to the impact on his industrious working life, and some scarring.’
He ruled that the appropriate compensation was €80,000, plus special damages of €7,116 to cover medical and other expenses.
In June 2013, a woman, who also sued Copper Face Jacks after injuring herself on the dance floor, did not fare so well and lost her case in the High Court.
Ciara O’Connell of Glenview Park, Tallaght broke her arm after her colleague fell on top of her in the early hours of August 4, 2006.
She claimed the floor was wet, but in a hard fought case, the nightclub argued her dance partner fell while emulating a reckless move from the film Dirty Dancing.