Local authorities, as a matter of law, do not have to go around inspecting their vast network of footpaths looking for holes, a judge has ruled

Local authorities, as a matter of law, do not have to go around inspecting every inch of their vast network of footpaths looking for holes, a judge has ruled when throwing out a €60,000 personal injury claim against South Dublin County Council.

Stephen Devine, a 44-year-old warehouse worker of Harelawn Avenue, Rowlagh, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, told Judge Terence O’Sullivan in the Circuit Civil Court that he had been forced to step off a footpath because of parked cars and had fallen heavily when he tripped in a pothole.

Devine said that in January 2022 he had suffered an injury to his right knee and broke his right wrist in the incident while he had been walking with his mother near their home and had his arm put in a plaster at St James’s Hospital two days later when he had to seek treatment because of increasing pain.

He said his lifestyle and ability to enjoy life had been diminished as a result of the accident at Harelawn Drive.

Forensic Engineer Cathal Maguire told barrister John Doherty, counsel for the local authority, that there was a problem with vehicles having been parked illegally on the footpath and along a bitumen surfaced verge.

He said the accident had occurred in broad daylight and Mr Devine could reasonably have been expected to have seen and avoided what was an obvious pothole caused by the unlawful parking of cars.

Mr Doherty, who appeared with Canal Quarter Solicitors, asked Judge O’Sullivan for a direction striking out the claim against the County Council on the basis that the local authority had not carried out any repair to the footpath and in the absence of any evidence of his client having been responsible for any faulty repairs.

Judge O’Sullivan said local authorities did not have to go around all of their footpaths as a matter of law and South Dublin County Council would only be responsible for someone having a trip if it had carried out negligent repair works to the area.

“Mr Doherty has a strong case in his application for a direction in that there has been no cogent evidence on the balance of probability that would convince me there had been works of poor design and construction carried out by the local authority,” Judge O’Sullivan said.

Dismissing Devine’s claim with an order for costs against him, Judge O’Sullivan said the local authority could not be held responsible for the illegal acts of others such as the unlawful parking of cars.

The court was convinced, he said, that the pothole had been caused and consistently made worse by illegal parking and not because of anything South Dublin County Council had done. Mr Devine had been forced to move off a concrete footpath because of illegally parked cars.