A mother and daughter have each lost €75,000 defamation claims against Christian Louboutin and Brown Thomas over alleged remarks by a member of the Louboutin Boutique staff when they tried to change a €675 pair of shoes.
Judge James O’Donohoe, in a reserved judgment, said Sarah Anne McGinley senior, aged 48, of St Theresa’s, Fortunestown, Saggart, Co Dublin, was clearly agitated and the first to have introduced an issue of the shoes possible being “mock,” while shouting in a loud voice.
The judge told barrister Shane English, defence counsel for both defendants, that Sarah Anne junior, who said her boyfriend Kane Joyce had bought her the shoes as an anniversary gift, but in the wrong size, had not given any evidence of the alleged defamatory words in her claim and this had created a difficulty for her.
“Overall, it is evident that the mother caused a scene and imputed the word mock into the verbal exchange between her and a staff member in the shop,” Judge O’Donohoe said.
Throwing out the two cases, with an order for costs against both women, Judge O’Donohoe added that the court found that Louboutin staff member Ciara Rogan did not utter the defamatory words that were pleaded in both cases.
He said Ms Rogan, in phone recordings of what had been said, sounded eminently helpful and reasonable while protecting her employer’s merchandise.
Judge O’Donohoe said it had been pleaded by both plaintiffs that on refusing to change the shoes Ms Rogan had stated: “They are a different shade to the ones we sell. No, they do not look right and I am definitely not changing them…they do not look authentic.”
Both women had claimed this had caused embarrassment and had been said in the hearing of many other shoppers despite the incident having taken place during Covid lockdown and when Christian Louboutin had been exercising a strict regime of allowing a maximum of four masked customers into its boutique at any one time.
Ciara Rogan in evidence told Mr English, who appeared with Hayes Solicitors, she did not use the word “authentic” but had closely examined the shoes to ensure they had not been worn or damaged and, as such, unsellable again.
She said it was company policy to exchange products on presentation of an official receipt and invoice and added that the two ladies had neither on December 8th, 2020.
Ms Rogan said she had contacted her manager at his home about the exchange and had been told: “No receipt. No return.”
McGinley senior had told the court there had been three members of staff and seven or eight other people in the shop when Ms Rogan had raised the question of the shoes not being authentic.
She said she was with her daughter Sarah Anne, who had since had a baby, and a then 11-year-old daughter who had recorded a video on Mrs McGinley’s phone.
Judge O’Donohoe was told that the shoes had been purchased in cash in the Christian Louboutin Department by Sarah Anne junior’s boyfriend as an anniversary gift, and were found to be the wrong size. This had been her reason for wanting to exchange them.
