High Court challenge to €40k injury award to hillwalker

The €40,000 award of damages to hill walker Teresa Wall following a fall on the Wicklow Way is to be challenged in the High Court. Appeal papers are to be lodged within a matter of days, it was confirmed yesterday.

Legal argument will apply mainly to Section 4 of the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1995 and in particular whether, under the section, there was a failure on the part of the National Parks and Wildlife Service to take reasonable care to maintain a boardwalk in a safe condition.

Ms Wall, a 59-year-old from Rathingle Cottages, Swords, Co Dublin, injured her knee when she fell on a boardwalk of partially rotten railway sleepers on August 6, 2013. She claimed she had been directed by signs to walk on the sleepers.