Boy gets €1.5m for losing arm in mower

A little Cork boy who lost his right arm in a horrific lawnmower accident was yesterday awarded €1.5m in compensation.

Conor Byrne, aged 7, was almost 3 when the amputation occurred.

At the High Court in Cork yesterday, Mr Justice Kevin Feeney approved the settlement and commented on the schoolboy’s “beaming smile” in court.

His mother Kathleen Byrne, from Kilva, Midleton, Co Cork, told Mr Justice Feeney that Conor was “doing brilliantly in school”.

The judge said he was glad to hear that and joked with Mrs Byrne about there being no obstacle to the child’s ability to play computer games.

The boy, it emerged, had gone with his mother Kathleen to visit his aunt Mary Keohane at Carrigogna in Midleton on May 1, 2009. He was in the garden as his mother helped her sister to plant some flowers.

Conor was standing on a bed of chippings, on a raised area, and a teenage relative was reversing a drive-on lawnmower nearby.

The little boy fell down an embankment and rolled down next to the lawnmower. His right hand went under a protective guard shielding the blade.

There was a complete amputation below the elbow and, although he was rushed to Cork University Hospital, it was not possible to reattach the severed part.

Yesterday, Mr Feeney approved the settlement award of €1.5m. The legal action was taken by Conor through his father, Ciaran, against the insurers of Tom and Mary Keohane.

The plaintiff’s senior counsel John Lucey recommended the settlement offer in the case. Mr Justice Feeney noted it effectively represented the full value of the case as if full liability had been established against the defendants.

The judge thanked the plaintiff’s solicitor Martin Harvey for the comprehensive and detailed presentation of documents in the case which enabled the court to make a decision to approve the settlement offer.

A figure of €350,000 was approved for general damages for pain and suffering to date while €1.15m was given in respect of damages and losses in the future.

The general damages, including the cost of adapting the family home, represented a good award towards the top of the scale for such injuries, observed Mr Justice Feeney.

He ordered the sum to be lodged in court for Conor’s benefit until the boy reached the age of 18 but agreed to an application to pay out €35,000 to cover costs incurred to date.