Man’s €60,000 claim for ankle broken in game ruled offside

A keen soccer player, who broke his ankle while playing in frosty conditions on an astro-turf pitch, has lost a €60,000 personal injuries claim against a Dublin school and a company that organised fun, seven-a-side matches.

Hichem Kerfah, a 35-year-old waiter who had worked in Dublin, flew back with a number of friends from Versailles, France, to give evidence in his claim against joint defendants O’Connell Secondary School, North Richmond Street, Dublin, and O’Connell Secondary School Indoor Football.

Barristers Seamus Breen, for the company, and Adrianne Fields, for the school, opposed Mr Kerfah’s contentions he had been caused to slip and fall on the astro-turf surface and collide with a metal fence. Both defendants claimed that, in the weather conditions pertaining at the time, he was the author of his own downfall.