A judge has ordered the City Hall of Granada to pay out 2,500 euros in damages, after a woman tripped over the stump of a missing road sign. The victim had asked for 5,000 but the judge considered the accident was her fault too.

On the 8th of April 2006 at 08.30h a woman was walking along a pavement when she tripped over the jagged stub of a road sign that had been snapped off by vandals; it wasn’t the first time that vandals had targeted this particular road sign and the City Hall had had to replace tn on several occasions.

As a result of the fall, the woman was unable to work and spent 60 days recovering from her injury. Consequently, she sued the City Hall for the ‘dangerous condition’ of the pavement, which had provoked her misfortune. The City Hall didn’t dispute the fact that they should have rectified the breakage, either by replacing the sign or, at the very least, removing the stump and repairing the paving stones.

However, the victim put her ‘foot in it’ when she explained that she had tripped over the stump as she turned to cross the road, choosing a spot between two parked cars. The Judge considered that if the woman had used the correct place to cross the road; i.e., a nearby pedestrian crossing, the accident may not have occurred. So, the victim’s claim for damages was halved before she could mutter, “Me and my big mouth!”

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)