Woman’s appeal in failed action over bus fare is allowed

The High Court has allowed an appeal by a woman against a Circuit Court decision dismissing her action for defamation in a dispute over payment of a bus fare.

Sylvia Corrigan (52), of Clonree Road, Donnycarney, Dublin, sued Dublin Bus over an incident on the 27B bus on June 24th, 2018. She claimed the driver had told her she had not paid her fare and instructed her to get off.

Dublin Bus denied her claims and argued she used foul language and behaved aggressively and offensively towards bus driver Dara Black, threatening to get him fired.

Last April, the Circuit Court dismissed her action for defamation and awarded costs against her. The Circuit Court judge said she believed the bus driver Dara Black’s version of what had happened over a dispute about the payment or non-payment of a fare.

Ms Corrigan appealed the decision to the High Court which was told on Thursday that, following talks between the parties, the appeal could be allowed, on consent, with an order for costs in her favour.

Mr Justice Charles Meenan struck out the appeal and also vacated the order for costs made against her in the Circuit Court.

Ms Corrigan claimed the driver had wrongly accused her of not having paid her €2.15 fare even though she had done so with her Leap card.

She denied Dublin Bus’s claims that she was abusive and threatened to get the driver fired.

She told the Circuit Court that she spoke to the driver in a very low voice saying: “Why are you being an a**hole to me?” She said he responded by telling to get off his bus.

She said she was so upset and embarrassed that she got off the vehicle.

“I felt I was being treated as a criminal,” she said. The bus was full and passengers overheard the driver telling her to get off, she said.

The court also heard the incident began when she got on the bus and activated her Leap card at the door.

The driver, Mr Black, said he had not seen her tap her card. He had seen her standing by the machine while looking into her bag, and he had assumed she was going to take her card out. He had later accepted she had paid her fare, but she had started shouting and screaming foul language at him, he said.

Counsel for Dublin Bus, Jeri Ward, said her client accepted that the driver had made an honest mistake but denied, in its defence documents, that he had shouted at her. He had told her he had to drive the bus and if she was going to continue being aggressive it might be better if she got off.