Woman who overloaded Tesco trolley loses €60,000 damages claim

Engineer says weight of two children caused trolley to topple and injure Patricia Martin’s leg

A mother who overloaded her shopping trolley with her children and injured herself in a fall, has lost a €60,000 damages claim against her local Tesco.

Forensic engineer Stephen Mooney told Judge James O'Donohoe in the Circuit Civil Court that by putting her children, aged three and six, on the trolley Patricia Martin had destabilised it and caused it to topple.

Ms Martin (43) claimed she had injured both her knees and her left thigh when the trolley knocked her down while she tried to protect her two children from hitting the trolley ramp.

She told the court that she shopped at Tesco, Churchview Road, Ballybrack, Co Dublin, in July 2014 and was leaving the store with her goods, and her son (three) and daughter (six) seated on the trolley, when the incident happened.

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Ms Martin, of Oakton Park, Ballybrack, claimed the incident had been caused by a deficiency in the trolley or in the ramp leading from the store to the car park. She said she had been pushing the trolley when it suddenly overturned.

Mr Mooney told the court that CCTV footage of the incident revealed Ms Martin had been approaching the ramp with her trolley side-on to it. He said there had been no problem with either the trolley or the ramp.

He said the trolley provided seating for two toddlers of a combined weight of no more than 19kg but, between them, Ms Martin’s two children weighed 36kg.

“The extra weight of the children would certainly have destabilised the trolley,” he told barrister Frank Martin, counsel for Tesco.

Judge O’Donohoe, dismissing Ms Martin’s claim and awarding costs against her, said it was reckless of her to have put both children on the trolley and she had been the author of her own misfortune.

Neither the trolley or ramp had breached any safety regulation, he said.