Ray Managh
A Co Dublin soccer club will have to launch a fund-raising campaign to pay €46,000 personal injuries compensation to a teenager who suffered serious scald injuries at the club six years ago.
Barrister Martin Dully told Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain in the Circuit Civil Court that scalding hot chocolate had been spilled over Abbie Murphy Greene when she was only eight years old.
The court heard that the club’s insurers, Elite Insurance, had gone bust since the June 2015 accident, leaving Swords Celtic Football Club itself having to meet a €46,133 assessment by the Injuries Board which Judge Ni Chulachain approved today.
Mr Dully, who appeared with Seamus Maguire Solicitors, Blanchardstown, for Abbie, said she had suffered particularly nasty and significant scalding injuries to the front of her shoulders and lower body when the spillage happened at a food and beverage stall at the club.
Counsel said fellow barrister Laurence Masterson and the club’s solicitor Hugh O’Neill of Hennessy Perozzi & Company, had attended court to give an assurance of the club’s honourable intentions with regard to doing everything it could to meet the assessment.
Respected community club
Mr Masterson told Judge Ni Chulachain the club, while it had no assets, was taking the matter very seriously and would be applying to the Central Bank’s fund which covers losses suffered by clients of an insurer that goes into liquidation.
“We are hoping that the fund will meet 65 per cent of the assessment and even in that event the club will still have to mount a fund-raising campaign to pay the remainder of the compensation if not all of it,” Mr Masterson said. “The club intends raising the money for Abbie.”
Mr Masterson said the club, which occupies grounds at Balheary, near Swords, Co Dublin, had 500 junior members for whom it specialised in providing sports facilities. It was a well-known and respected community club and also provides services for children with special needs.
Prolonged treatment
Mr Dully said Abbie, of Corduff Park, Blanchardstown, will be 15 towards the end of October, and had been treated immediately following the injury for severe burns, intense pain and shock, having to undergo prolonged post-accident treatments.
She had since made a full recovery but had been left with a residual skin discolouration.
Judge Ni Chulachain, who examined the discolouration in chambers, said it was significant and was in an area that would be to some extent evident as a result of dresses Abbie might wish to wear in the future.
“The assessment is within the range of compensation for an injury of this nature, albeit at the lower end. There is no guarantee Abbie would get any more than that if her case went to trial,” Judge Ni Chulachain said.
Approving the settlement offer Judge Ni Chulachain agreed to put a stay of six months on the payment into court of the compensation in order to allow the club an opportunity to raise funds.
Abbie and her mum Kim were in court for the hearing.
