Heavy cost of failure

THIS morning a Dublin university student wakes to the unattractive prospect of a substantial legal bill after she lost a court claim over a hockey injury sustained while she was in secondary school.

Mr Justice Raymond Fullan, ruling in the High Court yesterday, awarded costs against her.

Ailbhe Cole slipped on wet grass. She was injured and took an action against her school. Dismissing the action, the judge said the incident was “an accident pure and simple ... strange as it may seem, accidents can happen where ‘somebody else’ is not to blame”, he said.