A WOMAN who sued Bankstown RSL for nearly $200,000 after a fall has lost her case with the judge saying she should have watched where she was going.

Kathleen Parker, 42, was at the club for a children’s dance performance dinner and was seated at a table at the edge of the dance floor.

At one point during the evening of December 22, 2007, the mother-of-five got up and tripped.

The Mount Pritchard resident sued the historic Western Sydney community hub for negligence, saying the “extremely ill-lit” lighting caused her to fall and severely injure herself physically and mentally.

She was claimed damages including just under $200,000 in lost income.

media_camera Ordered to pay costs... Kathleen Parker at an earlier hearing. Picture: Adam Taylor

But Justice Christine Adamson said while Mrs Parker fell on an unidentified object near a step, she was not satisfied that the strip lighting was not illuminated at the time of the fall

“The overwhelming evidence was that it was probably illuminated throughout the auditorium during the whole concert,” Justice Adamson said in her judgement today.

Justice Adamson said had she been looking where she was going, she would have seen the step and been able to negotiate it safely.

“I consider that Mrs Parker gave an incorrect version of how the accident happened because of her desire to feel that she was not at fault and to enhance her prospects of success in the litigation,” she said.

“In my view, Mrs Parker fell because she was not taking reasonable care for her own safety in that she did not watch where she was going.”

The one-time shop assistant said the fall caused injuries to her knees, arms, elbows and shoulder.

But Justice Adamson said the principal disability from the fall was the injury to her right arm.

The judgement was made in favour of Bankstown RSL with Mrs Parker being ordered to pay costs.

Originally published as Watch where you’re going, judge tells fall claim mum