A mother who overloaded her shopping trolley with her children and injured herself in a fall has lost a €60,000 damages claim against her local Tesco, writes Ray Managh.

Forensic engineer Stephen Mooney told Judge James O’Donohoe in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday that by putting her children, aged 3 and 6, on the trolley, Patricia Martin had destabilised it and caused it to topple.

Ms Martin, aged 43, claimed she had injured her knees and left thigh when the trolley knocked her down while she tried to protect her two children from hitting the trolley ramp.

She told the court that she was leaving Tesco, Churchview Road, Ballybrack, Co Dublin, in July 2014 with her goods, and three-year-old son and six-year-old daughter seated on the trolley, when the incident happened.

Martin, of Oakton Park, Ballybrack, claimed the incident had been caused by a deficiency in the trolley or in the ramp leading from the store to the car park. She said she had been pushing the trolley when it had suddenly overturned.

Mr Mooney told the court that CCTV coverage showed Ms Martin approached the ramp with her trolley side-on when the incident occurred. He said there had been no problem with either the trolley or the ramp.

He said the trolley provided seating for two toddlers of a combined weight of no more than 19kg; between them, Ms Martin’s two children weighed 36kg.

Judge O’Donohoe, dismissing Ms Martin’s claim and awarding costs against her, said it was reckless of her to have put both children on the trolley and she had been the author of her own misfortune.

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner .