A HIGH Court judge has said he might be "serving womankind" if he could stop people wearing high heel shoes.

Mr Justice Michael Hanna was speaking during a case in which a woman sued Dublin City Council after breaking her ankle in a fall she claimed was caused by a piece of broken pavement outside a nightclub.

The council denied liability.

Alison Boylan (35), a housewife and mother-of-five from Saggart Lakes, Saggart, Co Dublin, had been wearing high heeled shoes she bought the day of her accident which were shown to the judge.

"I think I might serve womankind if I could stop people wearing those shoes - but that is not my function", he said.

Following talks between the parties later in the day, the judge was told by Conor Magure SC, for Ms Boylan, the case had been settled and could be struck out.

The judge congratulated the parties on reaching agreement before commenting: "You have relieved me from having to make a major fashion statement".

Ms Boylan said she had been out for the evening, on May 17, 2009, with her husband, and had just come out of Buck Whaley's Piano Bar in Leeson Street, Dublin, when she tripped and fell down on her knees and hands. She said when she looked around there was a piece of the kerb missing.

The city council denied her claim and said she was intoxicated to such an extent that she was unable to exercise proper control of herself.

Ms Boylan said she had only had three drinks that evening and they had left the Piano Bar to go home because it got crowded.

She went home thinking it was just a sprain but by the morning she was in "unbelievable" pain and had to go to hospital where she was put in a cast. She said she had to use a wheelchair she got from the Irish Wheelchair Association for four weeks after the accident.

He still has some pain from the injury and has to take painkillers if she expects to spend a lot of time on her feet, she said.

Online Editors