A company director, who claimed the expensive alloy wheels on his Porsche 911 Carrera were damaged when his car was impounded, has lost a claim for almost €4,500 damages against the company which lifted it off the street.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne ordered Mr John Murphy, St Andrew's Drive, the Fairways, Lucan, Co Dublin, to pay the removal company's legal costs estimated at upwards of €6,000.
Mr Murphy told his counsel, Mr Declan Wade, that he had parked his Porsche in Guild Street while he attended a meeting in the Financial Centre, Dublin. When he retrieved his car from the pound, he found that each of the alloy wheels had been damaged.
He claimed that scissors-like claws, attached to each of the wheels to lift the car on to the takeaway lorry, had scratched and scored the alloys.
He had sued Central Parking Ltd, which trades as Control Plus, in the District Court and had been awarded €4,439 damages. Yesterday the company won its appeal to the Circuit Civil Court.
Mr Mark Joyce, the lorry-lift driver, told Mr Conor Halpin, counsel for the company, that the scissor-claws could not have caused the damage shown in photographs produced in court. He said scores to the rims of the alloys suggested kerb damage while marks around the wheel nuts suggested the careless use of air guns used to loosen and tighten wheel nuts.
Judge Dunne, allowing the company's appeal, said she was not satisfied as a matter of probability that the damage had been caused by the lifting process. She said the Porsche was four years old at the time and she thought it unlikely that there had been no marks on the wheels until they were lifted by the removal company.