A Co Westmeath social care worker lost a 60,000 euro personal injuries claim against the Dublin Airport Authority and has been ordered to pay substantial legal costs. The case involved an incident at the airport.
An airline passenger lost her personal injuries claim against the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) after a Circuit Civil Court judge ruled that the airport was not the correct entity to sue for the tarmac accident.
Judge Ní Chúlacháin dismissed the case against the DAA, ruling in their favor without hearing evidence of the actual injury. The passenger was also ordered to pay the full legal costs of the action.
The plaintiff, a social care worker from Co Westmeath, slipped and fell in a pool of de-icer fluid on the tarmac at Dublin Airport while returning from a holiday in Las Vegas. She filed a personal injury case seeking damages against the DAA. Barrister Shane English, appearing with David Martin of Gore & Grimes Solicitors for the DAA, argued that the passenger was under the control of the airline, Dutch carrier KLM, at the time of the incident.
The court accepted that because airline staff were controlling her movements and directing her toward the terminal, she was still in a “mode of disembarkation”.
Under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, legal liability for accidents during disembarkation rests strictly with the carrier airline (KLM), rather than the airport authority. The court noted that the DAA had previously advised the plaintiff multiple times via email to sue the airline instead.
