Council not liable for flooded butcher’s shop

A newly opened butcher’s shop suffered “catastrophic damage” when a huge county council asbestos mains water pipe burst in July 2009, and flooded the shop in Killarney, the Circuit Civil Court was told yesterday.

Such was the nature of the burst pipe that the pressure of the water through the 600mm-diameter pipe, which supplies 30,000 homes in Tralee and Killarney, caused the water to burst up from 3m depth, to flood the shop of Timothy Jones, trading as Country Pork, 100 metres from the burst at Central Point, Park Road Killarney.

The damage to the shop was €25,000 and the shop and its insurers sued the county council for negligence. They had been led to believe the council would cover the costs, Katie O’Connell barrister for Mr Jones said.