O'Donoghue v Greene

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 11 January 1967
• Date: 11 January 1967
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

O'Donoghue

and

Greene

Public house - Stairway -Absence of handrail - Lighting - Whether any unusual danger - Liability of invitor - Tests applicable where invitee had knowledge of the danger.

The plaintiff, being an invitee within a public house occupied by the defendant, fell and was injured when descending a flight of stairs leading from a door (serving the bar area of the premises) to toilet accommodation in the basement of the premises. The staircase had no handrail. The plaintiff sued the defendant. Held by the Supreme Court ( Ó Dálaigh C.J.; Walsh J.; and O'Keeffe P., who dissented only in regard to the application of the principles of law to the facts of the case) that 1, the question whether a danger was usual or unusual should be decided with reference to the knowledge and experience of the class of persons to which the invitee belonged —in this case the general adult public —and not with reference to the knowledge and experience of the particular invitee; and that in the circumstances a similar question relating to the facts of the case, should have been left for the jury to answer; 2, (a) That where an invitee has knowledge of an unusual danger, whether such knowledge was acquired by him independently or whether it was imparted to him by the invitor, the correct test for the...