An Post is prepared to enter into mediation talks in the case of a postmistress who sued after she was the victim of a tiger kidnapping, the High Court has heard.
Susan Lawlor, from Malahide, along with her daughter and an Italian student, was abducted from her home at gunpoint in September 2014. They were driven around by the captors until the €80,000 contents of safe at Bayside Post Office, Dublin, where she was postmistress, were stolen.
Ms Lawlor’s senior counsel, Richard Kean, told the court on Tuesday that there were four sets of civil proceedings as a result of the events. He said Ms Lawlor’s two daughters and the Italian exchange student have also sued. All these proceedings are now linked and the court will deal with them at the same time.
Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds was told that the Lawlor side believed that FBD Insurance may not be agreeable to mediation and counsel asked that all four cases be listed for mention before the court in two weeks’ time.
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Mr Justice Reynolds said she was surprised there was no representation for FBD in court on Tuesday and she directed that the insurance company be notified of the case coming back to court.
The judge said that if all the parties involved were willing to go to mediation, the insurer would have to have a very good reason to stand in the way of that.
In her case against An Post, Ms Lawlor (58) claims there was a failure to have regard to previous incidences of tiger kidnappings and a failure to follow the appropriate An Post protocols.
It is further claimed there was a failure to take adequate precautions for her safety and she had allegedly been phoned on her mobile to ascertain whether the alarm she had called in was valid.
[ Postmistress sues An Post alleging flawed response to tiger kidnappingOpens in new window ]
All of the claims are denied, and An Post contends that the postmistress was not an employee but an independent contractor.
At the opening of Ms Lawlor’s action before the High Court last month, Mr Kean, instructed by solicitor Daniel O’Connell, said Ms Lawlor, upon hearing armed robbers in her home, followed An Post protocol by phoning a hostage helpline that was meant to activate a covert response.
However, counsel said, as Ms Lawlor and the other two women were being driven around north Co Dublin in a car by the robbers, an An Post security officer rang her back and the robbers “went utterly ballistic”. Counsel said there was a big escalation in violence and Ms Lawlor was told by one robber: “I am going to shoot you in the f**king head.”
She later thought they may be burned alive in the car as an accelerant was poured over it, and, counsel said, she pulled out some of her hair and spit on the car floor so she would leave her DNA sample.
Counsel told the court that tiger kidnappings were rampant in the country at the time. He said Ms Lawlor loyally followed protocol but the alleged “negligent treatment by An Post has caused her life-long stress and anxiety”.
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