A TEENAGER who was injured while sharing a toilet with a friend at a disco has lost a €38,000 damages claim against a rugby club.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane dismissed the claim of Laura Mulvanney (now 19), Foxrock Mount, Foxrock, Dublin, against Old Wesley Rugby Club, Donnybrook, Dublin.
The judge said Ms Mulvanney, injured when the top of a toilet cistern fell on her leg at a Saturday night event four years ago, failed to prove negligence and lack of care on the part of the Dublin 4 club.
Barrister Kevin Callan, counsel for Old Wesley, told the Circuit Civil Court yesterday the club alleged the two girls had been engaged in the clandestine consumption of alcohol in the lavatory.
Mulvanney, who was 15 when the incident happened, said she and a friend, Aideen O’Higgins, had gone to the toilet together at the Old Wesley teenage disco on September 30th, 2006.
Both had been in the same cubicle, and she had used the toilet first. She did not flush it, as she knew Ms O’Higgins was going to use it. When Ms O’Higgins flushed the toilet, the top of the cistern smashed on the floor, cutting her leg.
When asked about two empty alcohol bottles which had been found in the cistern following the incident, she said she and her friend knew nothing about them. Staff had conducted a search of everyone’s belongings entering the club.
She had noticed blood pouring down her leg after the incident and a member of staff had taken her to St Vincent’s Hospital, where she had received six stitches.
Ms O’Higgins said she had been sitting on the toilet, and the cistern lid had come crashing down when she put her hand behind her to flush it.
She denied she and Ms Mulvanney had a fight in a first aid room following the incident. Both denied drinking in the toilet. They said they each had two drinks before going to the disco.
Toilet attendant Lorraine Hopkins said she heard the girls laughing and giggling in the cubicle. She heard a crash and knocked on the door calling for them to come out. They had then rushed past her.
Ms Hopkins said she saw the smashed cistern lid on the floor and could smell alcohol.
She found two spirits bottles in the cistern.
Old Wesley events manager Donie Bolger said the disco club had a policy of zero tolerance to alcohol, and searches were carried out to prevent alcohol from being smuggled in.
He said both girls looked intoxicated in the First Aid room. Ms Mulvanney had said to Ms O’Higgins: “You bitch. Why did you do that? I told you to stop messing.”
Judge Linnane awarded costs against Ms Mulvanney.
The claim had initially been made when she was a minor by her mother, Rachel Mulvanney, and was continued by Ms Mulvanney after she reached the age of 18 in February last year.