Court drops pensioner’s Springfield stair case

Friday 05 October 2018

The Royal Court has dropped the case of a pensioner who tried to sue the Minister for Sport following a fall down the “soapy” stairs at Springfield after she passed away before a hearing could take place.

The accident happened in 2012 when the islander was 76 years old. She had just been attending an exercise class at the stadium, when she slipped as she went down the stairs, injuring her ankle.

She said that this had been caused by the shampooing and cleaning of the upstairs carpet, which she alleged had been done without warning signs being placed around the stairs. 

Her ankle was injured as a result, leading her to place more pressure on her right knee. Years later, it weakened under the pressure, leading her to have a replacement knee operation in 2016.

Pictured: The case would have been heard in the Royal Court.

Seeking compensation for her accident, the pensioner made a claim against the Minister for Education, Sport and Culture, who is politically responsible for the upkeep of the sports centre. 

In her court papers, she stated that he had been negligent in: 

• “Allowing a hazardous situation to arise in a public area of Springfield without any or any adequate warning of its existence;
• Failing to ensure that the stairs and public areas were safe and particularly free from water and/ or cleaning products or chemicals; failing to provide any warning that there was or had been cleaning in progress in the vicinity of the stairs and/ or failing to provide any warning that the stairs and/ or surrounding areas were wet and/ or soapy;
• And failing to exercise reasonable care to ensure that cleaning operations were carried out in such a way and at such a time that they did not pose a danger to patrons of Springfield.”

The Minister denied responsibility for the fall, while the cleaners responded that they had only been cleaning the ground gloor at the time and not the landing she had fallen from.

While correspondence was exchanged over the years, the case remained on the court’s ‘pending’ list. However, before it was heard, the plaintiff passed away in March this year. 

This week, Master of the Royal Court Advocate Matthew Thompson concluded that the case shouldn’t continue, stating that “the balance of justice” would not allow it.

Setting out his reasons, he explained that the pensioner had failed to advance her claim while she was still alive, and added that the incident had happened so long ago that a trial into what happened would rely on potentially foggy memories.

“I am also not satisfied that a fair trial can now take place some 6 years after the event based on a witness statement of the plaintiff and oral recollection of other witnesses, assuming in the case of any cleaners that they could be found and they can remember what happened. This is not a case likely to be based on mainly documentary evidence where different considerations can apply,” he wrote in his judgement.

He also cited that medical evidence had emerged that the elderly islander might have had balance issues, which the defence would have wanted to explore in further depth with her at trial, but this would not now be possible. 

“For all these reasons therefore the plaintiff’s application to continue the proceedings is refused and the proceedings are struck out,” he concluded.