Woman has Everleigh Garden damages claim thrown out

A €38,000 damages claim by 27-year-old Aisling Comey against Dublin's Everleigh Garden nightclub has been thrown out.

Ms Comey had claimed she will be scarred for life after she lacerated her left leg against a plant pot while celebrating her birthday on the dancefloor of the nightclub on Harcourt Street, Dublin.

Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke threw out the damages claim. Mr Justice Groarke said it remained unexplained as to how Ms Comey suffered a deep five-centimetre horizontal laceration to her lower leg, but CCTV evidence clearly showed there was no plant pot where she and her friends had been dancing.

Ms Comey said in the Circuit Civil Court that she had not noticed her leg had been bleeding while she was celebrating her 26th birthday on the night of January 20th, 2013, until a stranger mentioned it to her.

She was given first aid treatment by a staff member before being taken by ambulance to St James’s Hospital, in Dublin, where her laceration was sutured.

She told barrister Andrew Walker, counsel for the nightclub, that she was wearing a dress and she lacerated her leg on the sharp corner of a stainless steel plant pot placed at the bottom of stairs, near to where her table was.

Ms Comey, of St Attracta Road, Cabra, Dublin, said the wound had left a permanent visible scar of which she was very conscious.

She sued Holtend Ltd, which trades as the Everleigh Garden, with a registered address at Glendenning House, Wicklow Street, Dublin, for negligence.

The nightclub denied liability and claimed Ms Comey had lacerated her leg on broken glass. Mr Walker told Judge Groarke that there never was a plant pot at the bottom of the stairs.

After Sean Barrett, from Maples and Calder solicitors, showed the court CCTV footage of the incident, the judge said he was satisfied there was no plant pot at the location, but he did not believe the deep clear laceration had been caused by broken glass.

The judge said Ms Comey suffered a horrible injury which had left her with a nasty scar, but she had failed to prove her claim.