Pregnant woman loses claim after near fall in Dunnes

A woman who was three months pregnant when she stumbled and almost fell in a Dunnes Store restaurant has lost a €38,000 damages claim for personal injuries against the retail chain.

Alison Keenan, now 40, of Annamoe Drive, Cabra, Dublin, told the Circuit Civil Court that in Nov 2007 she had gone with her sister, Barbara, for a ‘girls’ day’ of breakfast and shopping at Dunnes’ Blanchardstown branch.

She said she had just collected a fry with coffee on a tray and was walking towards the cash desk when one of her feet went from under her. “I was conscious of the scalding coffee spilling over my tummy and made a twisting grab for a rail to save myself falling,” she told Judge Jacqueline Linnane.