A woman who claims she fell on a pavement that was cracked due to damage from tree root growth has sued South Dublin County Council in the High Court.
Denise Best (54), a mother-of-two from Daletree Crescent, Firhouse, Dublin, has sued over the accident which happened around the corner from her home in August 2018.
She claims she tripped on a six-inch deep crack in the pavement which had been caused by root incursion from an adjacent lime tree which the council was responsible for looking after.
The council denies liability and says, among other things, Ms Best failed to keep a proper lookout. It also denies the footpath was damaged or that there was any uplift in the pavement because of the tree.
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The court heard Ms Best was walking home from a 21st birthday party for a neighbour’s son in the nearby Scholarstown Inn at around 1.15am when the incident happened.
She said she was talking to a neighbour, who was walking alongside her, with her husband in front of them, when she tripped and fell forward on her face. She said she injured her left ankle and left wrist. She did not go outside her home for some time afterwards because injuries to her face made her look “like I was beaten up”.
She said she was in a wrist cast, wore an air boot and was out of work from her job as an administrative liaison for community midwives and public health nurses for 12 weeks.
Ms Best told her counsel, Michael Byrne SC, with Declan Doyle SC, that she continues to be in pain as a result of the incident and that her foot swells up after a day’s work.
She had previously been exercising as part of a slimming course and went hill walking with her husband but has put on five stone since the fall. As a result, she went to Turkey to have bariatric surgery which was successful.
It was put to her under cross-examination by Peter Bland SC, for the council, that Ms Best had told a doctor, whose report was submitted to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, that she could not remember the details of the incident. She said she did not remember saying that to the doctor.
Counsel said a doctor in Tallaght noted it was subsequent to the fall that Ms Best discovered the unevenness of the pavement. She said she could not have seen it on the night because it was too dark and her husband had walked the area subsequently and found the crack.
Counsel put it to Ms Best that she had said an ambulance was called very soon after the incident, but that first responders recorded the call was put in around an hour later at 2.20am. She said she could not remember the time.
Asked if could she explain why the ambulance men recorded that she said she “fell from standing after slipping on a kerb”, she said she could not explain.
The ambulance men also recorded that she was picked up outside 43 Daletree Avenue but the crack in the pavement was identified as being between numbers 45 and 47. Ms Best said she did not know as she was unable to walk around.
It was also put to her that the triage nurse in the hospital also recorded her as having slipped off the kerb.
“If I slipped off the kerb, I would have been out on the road,” Ms Best said.
The case continues before Mr Justice Mícheál P O’Higgins.