Council left burns victim to live in conditions unfit for human habitation

A BURNS victim who needs to shower several times a day because of his injuries was left by Dublin City Council to live in conditions unfit for human habitation, a judge said yesterday.

Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Matthew Deery, said 54-year-old Anthony Gannon had complained for years about sewage welling up in his shower tray and spilling over into his bathroom before anything was done about it.

Yesterday, in a test case that could apply to hundreds of the council’s flat dwellers, the judge awarded Mr Gannon, who is registered as disabled, €15,000 damages against the local authority.

“The evidence leads me inevitably to conclude that his apartment at Dolphin House was unfit for human habitation and in breach of the council’s contractual duty of care under the Housing Act,” Judge Deery said.

Barrister Peter Maguire said it was hard to imagine circumstances that could be more inhuman and degrading than for Mr Gannon, who had been forced to live amid foul sewage from other apartments.

Mr Gannon, who was severely burned as a child of seven when he fell on a white hot electric cooker, told the court he had lived at 183 Dolphin House, Dublin, for 25 years until he was eventually rehoused at Blackditch, Ballyfermot, Dublin, only a month ago.

He said he had complained for years when sewage started backing up into his bath. The bath had been replaced and a shower, with full safety attachments for a disabled person, had been installed.

The problem returned with raw human sewage filling up his shower tray and spilling over on to the bathroom floor. From time to time the problem had been inspected but little or nothing done.

Mr Gannon said shortly after his solicitor Thomas Loomes threatened to sue the council in 2010 some works had been carried out and he had told Deborah Ryan, the council’s senior liability and risk control officer, he was “happy” with the situation. Ms Ryan told barrister John P Kehoe, for the local authority, that there had been issues with the shower but the problem had been rectified. When shown pictures of sewage in the shower she said it was unacceptable.

Judge Deery accepted Mr Gannon had complained over a long period of residence in the apartment and that he had been distressed by the conditions because of his own particular personal and health problems.