Gas Networks Ireland

An 83-year-old man yanked a gas pipe from a wall inside his house causing an explosion in which he was burned. And although his actions had been described as “foolhardy” he was yesterday awarded €72,500 as a judge said Gas Networks Ireland had left “a primed bomb” in the house.

Mr Justice Paul Butler said: “It was like having a primed bomb in the house. If some — and I don’t mind using the word — eejit decided to break the pipe away I believe it could be anticipated by the defendant. They leave an elderly man with a loose pipe in the house without adequate explanation that if he removed it a number of people could have been killed or injured.

“Was the defendant negligent? Yes. Was the plaintiff negligent? Yes. I have no hesitation saying yes, by carrying out a foolhardy operation,” Mr Justice Butler said.

However, weighing a large company like Gas Networks Ireland against an 83-year-old man effectively living alone as his wife was in hospital at the time, the judge said the apportionment of the householder’s negligence was so small that he would not use it to subtract any fraction from the total award.

The judge said he was very impressed with the complete absence of any exaggeration by the plaintiff of injuries sustained in what must have been a frightening experience. A four-month stay was placed on the award pending any Gas Networks Ireland appeal.

“What the plaintiff did was extremely foolhardy”, Miriam O’Riordan senior counsel for Gas Networks Ireland suggested yesterday at the High Court sitting in Cork.

The plaintiff’s last witness, consulting engineer John Lennon, replied: “We all know hindsight is 20:20 vision.” Mr Lennon said there would have been no leverage to pull the pipe if Gas Networks Ireland had clipped it to the wall at the end as well as in the middle.

William Lee, of 24, Barrett’s Buildings, Cork, was hospitalised for five weeks after suffering burns to the front of his body in the explosion at his home in January 2013.

Mr Lee said he was moving an electrical socket for a hi-fi on the day in question when he pulled a loose pipe out of his way. The pipe in question was in fact a capped gas pipe.

“I just pulled it off the wall because it was in my way. I was not thinking at all. I did not think about gas or anything else. (Shortly afterwards) there was an unmerciful bang. I put my hands to my face. I woke up in the hall with people walking all over the place,” Mr Lee said.

The gas company had cut off two gas heaters in his house six months earlier because they were deemed unsafe and the pipes were capped at the end.

Gas Networks Ireland fitter Ian O’Brien said the company went to Barrett’s Terrace because of a complaint about a smell of gas. He said he blanked the pipes — the property of the householder — and they were fully safe when he left. He said the heaters were cut off for safety reasons and appliances should only be connected again by an authorised fitter.

Gas Networks Ireland went to the area in the first place because of a reported gas leak outside Barrett’s Terrace and they called to the plaintiff’s house and another house as they were closest to that leak.