Town council to pay €40k in compensation

Tralee Town Council will have to pay out more than €40,000 in compensation in two separate claims involving children falling, the Circuit Court ruled in Kerry yesterday.

Three-year-old Chanel Fitzgerald, suing through her mother, Fiona Fitzgerald of Mitchell’s Road, Tralee, had been playing in the garden of an unoccupied house owned by Tralee Town Council at Mitchell’s Crescent in August 2011 when she tripped and cut herself, lacerating her knee. She was taken by ambulance to Kerry General Hospital. She has been left with a 4cm scar over her left knee but reconstructive plastic surgery was not needed, her barrister, Richard Liston, said.

The Personal Injuries Assessment Board had agreed a settlement of €23,000 general damages and €1,133 special damages, Mr Liston said.

On February 23, 2011, Shemeka Coffey aged seven, suing through her mother Bridget Coffey, of Clonmore Grove, Tralee, had tripped on a broken footpath at Dean’s Lane in Tralee town centre and as a result her arm was fractured and she had suffered abrasions on her right knee. She was in a cast for three weeks. Now aged 10 she had made a full recovery, said her barrister, Caoilte O’Connor.

A settlement of €16,500 was approved in her case. The local authority will have to pay the costs of the litigation in both cases.