A woman who spent most of a holiday in her hotel bedroom after having been injured when a sun lounger collapsed has been awarded €38,000 damages against the hotel.
Mary Lee (74) told the Circuit Civil Court that on the August 17th, 2008, she was sitting by the swimming pool of the four-star Hotel Galeazzi near Brescia, Italy.
Barrister Timothy Sheehan said Ms Lee, of Clongill, Donaghpatrick, Navan, Co Meath, who was on her third day of a week-long holiday with her husband, had just sat on a foldable sun lounger when it collapsed. She said she spent the rest of her holiday in her bedroom and attended her GP when she returned to Ireland as pain had continued. She was prescribed strong painkillers which she has been taking since.
Travel agency barrister Shane English said The Travel Department agency, of Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, denied liability and had brought the hotel, trading as Blu Hotels Spa, of Brescia, into proceedings as a third-party defendant.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane said she awarded the damages against the agency, which, she ruled, was entitled to be fully indemnified by the hotel for the €38,000 award and legal costs.