Housekeeper loses €60k damages claim against hotel for injured foot

Judge John O’Connor said that while he considered the injury to Ms Prukner’s right foot to have been the result of a genuine accident he was satisfied she had failed to prove negligence against the defendants. Picture: iStock

A forensic engineer has told a judge that he does not consider it necessary for a leading hotel to issue safety shoes to its housekeepers for duties of tidying and preparing rooms for new guests.

Kevin Roche of Donal G. Terry consulting engineers said Mirta Prukner was carrying out a routine task of rolling a glass-topped coffee table back into position when a sharp metal edge of one of the legs had cut through her shoe and injured her foot.

Prukner, a 45-year-old former housekeeper at The Maldron Hotel in Tallaght, lost a €60,000 damages claim for a laceration of her foot against Dalata Hotel Group and Tulane business Management, both of whom trade as Maldron Hotel, Tallaght.

Judge John O’Connor said that while he considered the injury to Ms Prukner’s right foot to have been the result of a genuine accident he was satisfied she had failed to prove negligence against the defendants.

Barrister Moira Flahive, who appeared with Shaffrey Solicitors, told the court that the Dalata Group operated among others 20 Maldron Hotels and there were thousands of such coffee tables in rooms throughout the hotels within the group’s ownership.

“Thousands of these tables are in every hotel room within the group,” Ms Flahive said.

She said Ms Prukner had received training in the performance of her duties and had been working for Maldron Hotels for 14 months prior to the accident.

Ms Prukner told the court that on August 25, 2018, she had been rolling the table, as instructed in training, back to its proper position in Room 606 after a guest had vacated it. 

A sharp edge on one of the table legs had sheared through the top of her canvas shoe.

She had received a laceration to her foot which had been treated in the hotel through the application of first aid administered by her superior before having been driven to Tallaght Hospital.

Prukner said she had suffered pain and discomfort in her foot for some time after the accident and had finished her employment with Maldron Hotels a month after the accident.

Dismissing Prukner’s claim on the grounds she had failed to prove her case, Judge O’Connor said an order for costs to the defendants “followed the event” but said due to the fact that it had been a genuine accident he hoped the defendants would consider not following her for costs.

Ms Flahive told the court she would convey the court’s sentiments to both of her clients.