Christie v Odeon (Ireland) Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1958
• Date: 01 January 1958
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

Christie

and

Odeon (Ireland) Ltd

Employee - Negligence alleged - Direction applied for at close of plaintiff's case - Refusal of application - Application not renewed at close of the evidence - General desirability of such renewal - Whether desirable in the particular circumstances - Whether defendants precluded from complaining on appeal of non-direction - Safe system of work - Alleged faults of omission - Test applicable to determine whether allegation against employer of fault or omission sustainable - Whether any evidence of negligence - Whether direction should have been given.

The defendants, a limited liability company, carried on business as cinema, ball-room and restaurant proprietors at their premises known as the Metropole Cinema, Ballroom and Restaurant, in O'Connell Street in the City of Dublin. The plaintiff, Kathleen Christie, who at all material times was a casual kitchen helper in the defendants' employment, claimed damages for personal injuries, loss and damage suffered by her and caused, as alleged, by reason of the negligence, nuisance and breach of statutory duty, of the defendants, their servants or agents, at their said premises on the night of 31st December, 1954/January 1st, 1955, when the plaintiff, while working for the defendants as aforesaid, slipped and fell in their said premises, in a passageway leading from the kitchen to the ballroom. On the night of the occurrence complained of, a dance was in progress at the Metropole Ballroom. Supper was served partly in the ballroom and partly on a balcony above and surrounding the ballroom. Ballroom and balcony were connected by a service stairs; halfway up the stairs was a landing and the side of the landingopposite to where the stairs abutted was occupied by a long service hatch leading into the kitchen. From the ledge of this hatch the waiters used to take the supper dishes up and down the stairs to the supper tables. The supper dishes, when used, were brought back by the waiters to a table situate on the righthand side of the landing looking from the hatch, whereat the plaintiff was posted. She was engaged in emptying the used soup bowls and scraping the plates and in stacking the cleared dishes on a tray in readiness for removal to the kitchen. During the night one of the waiters put two or three plates on the second step of the stairs leading up to the balcony on the plaintiff's left and some two feet away from the edge of the table where she was standing. The...