Ballymun residents' 18-month battle to be compensated for being without lifts for almost three months finally came to a halt yesterday in the High Court. Dublin Corporation is understood to have successfully resisted their claims for damages.
However, the corporation is believed to have agreed to pay 80 per cent of the hefty legal costs incurred by the tenants.
The settlement marks the end of a saga that saw the residents of the north Dublin tower blocks without lifts for most of the summer of 1998. Two of the 10 plaintiffs have died since the action was taken, but the other eight continued with the case.
Among those suing the corporation was a 76-year-old woman with a hip replacement and a heart problem who lives alone on the seventh floor of one of the blocks.
Another plaintiff was a 21-year-old woman who is both asthmatic and epileptic. She lives in a fifth-floor flat.
Both women were without the use of their lifts during a maintenance strike, which ran from June 30th to September 17th, 1998.
There are 2,814 flats and some 6,000 residents in the high-rise complex. There are seven 16-storey towers, and each has two lifts and 32 flights of stairs. Another 59 eight-storey blocks are each served by one lift and 16 flights of stairs.
It was difficult to get parts for the lifts, which were installed in the 1960s and required constant investment, counsel for the tenants, Mr Edward Walsh SC, said yesterday.
Even when functioning, they were often in poor condition, with graffiti, the stench of urine and no lights, Mr Walsh said. At the height of the strike, only 54 of the 73 lifts were operational.
Many of the people who live in Ballymun are not in good health, it was submitted.
The strikers were employees of a private company which Dublin Corporation had contracted to conduct the maintenance and repairs on the lifts.
The residents claimed the corporation had a statutory duty to provide them with an adequate lift system. Lawyers for the residents reached an agreement with the corporation's legal team two hours after the case was opened by Mr Edward Walsh SC, for the tenants.
The corporation pleaded that even if it had a statutory duty or contractual obligation, it was limited to an obligation to use all reasonable efforts to provide, repair, maintain and keep operational the lift service.
Any contractual obligation it may have had was frustrated because of the strike, it argued.