A Dublin woman has told a court she screamed after waking up in a Greek holiday hotel with an infestation of ants in her hair and in her bed, causing lumps of her hair to fall out.
Emma Doyle of Lissadell Avenue, Drimnagh, told Judge Geoffrey Shannon in the Circuit Civil Court that her screams had been heard at the swimming pool by her friends who had rushed to help her.
Ms Doyle, 26, was awarded just under €21,000 damages against Cassidy Travel and TUI UK and Ireland as well as Mika Apartments which provided her accommodation on a mountain side above a seaside strip in Crete, Greece, in August 2018.
Judge Shannon, in a reserved judgment, said she had complained of having induced alopecia after which, on her return home, she had suffered nightmare flashbacks, insomnia and panic attacks with palpitations and shortness of breath as a result of her experience.
He told barrister Deirdre Byrne, who appeared with Niall Ward of H.J. Ward Solicitors for Ms Doyle, that the court found her to be an honest and credible witness and accepted there had been no co-ordinated response by the defendants to deal with complaints and grievances about an infestation of ants in the room she shared with friends.
Judge Shannon said Ms Doyle, then aged 20, had told the court she and one of her friends had afterwards slept for two nights on a sun lounger by the swimming pool before changing their accommodation to another hotel.
He said that on the third morning of her stay she woke up with a large volume of ants in her hair and in her bed. A large clump of hair had fallen off her scalp and there had been ants all over the bed linen and floor.
A manager on behalf of the defendants had said the main pest targeted by pest control systems at the hotel were mosquitoes but other pests included ants, snakes and mice due to the hotel having been located in the Crete countryside.
“I am not in a position to make a finding of misrepresentation or mis-selling by Cassidy Travel because no contract had been produced to the court so I cannot find in favour of the plaintiff on this ground,” Judge Shannon said
He said he had been satisfied there had been an ant infestation in Ms Doyle’s hotel room and that the hotel had not made sufficient efforts to treat the ant problem, clean the room or provide new bed linen for the first three days of her holiday.
“The minimum expectation that a consumer should have is that a hotel room should be clean. This is an international as well as a domestic standard and was not met in this case,” the judge said.
He said he preferred the evidence of Ms Doyle that the room had not been checked for a number of days and held that there had been a significant passage of time before an alternative room had been offered and even then it had not been of a suitable standard.
Judge Shannon said that while some efforts had been taken to control pests he believed these were not sufficient and the defendants therefore had failed to ensure there had been a proper system in place with respect to pest control.
“The harm caused to the plaintiff was foreseeable as a matter of law and the defendants are liable for the improper performance of the contract by reason of its failure to exercise reasonable care and skill once on notice of the infestation,” he said.
He was satisfied that Ms Doyle’s hair loss had been caused by the ant infestation and he accepted her evidence that it had taken up to 12 months to grow back. She had suffered psychological injury as a result of the alopecia.
Judge Shannon ruled that sufficient evidence had not been adduced to support a contention by the defendants that Ms Doyle and her companions had held parties in their room and had left pizza boxes and other items lying around which had attracted ants.
He decided that on the evidence Ms Doyle had suffered temporary ant-induced alopecia and consequent psychological injury and awarded her €20,894 damages to include special damages and costs.
Barrister Brendan Savage, who appeared with Aneta Szczurek of Kennedys Solicitors, for the defendants, was granted a two weeks stay to facilitate consideration of an appeal to the High Court.
