McDonald’s fall man ‘moderately inebriated’

The condition of the man who had six pints of beer and slipped on a floor in McDonald’s was described by his lawyer as “a moderate level of inebriation in the great tradition of celebration of St Stephen’s night in this country”.

The case was brought by Jonathan Dineen of 28 Fairview, South Douglas Rd, Cork, against McDonald’s on Winthop St, Cork, arising out of an alleged accident on a wet floor ar the premises on December 26, 2010.

John O’Mahony, counsel for the plaintiff, said: “Someone could easily come to grief in the early hours of a morning like that where there are high spirits where there is someone with a moderate level of inebriation in the great tradition of celebration of St Stephen’s night in this country.

“On the evidence there would be a slipping hazard for 11 minutes or 13 minutes, and even with a slip warning sign in the area, a warning lessens the hazard but it does not obviate it.”

Consulting engineer Patrick O’Connell was called by Seán Lynch, counsel for McDonald’s. Mr O’Connell said that floor inspections at 15 minute intervals and a further general inspection every 30 minutes by a manager was a reasonable degree of frequency.

Dr O’Mahony submitted that it was put forward by the defence that this was the system they had in place but he said there was no evidence from the person on the floor who actually cleaned up on the night in question.

“The difficulty the court has is that the system is given but we have no evidence, good, bad or indifferent, of how frequently the slippages occurred,” he said.

Mr Lynch produced entries from the plaintiff’s Facebook page on the opening day of the case including one which was sent to him by a friend which read: “Ha ha… you are going to be minted because of McDonald’s.” Mr Dineen’s written reply was: “Ha ha ha ha.”

At the conclusion of evidence in the case yesterday at the High Court sitting in Cork Mr Justice Henry Abbott said that he would give his judgment on Friday, July 17.