Woman awarded €56k after scalding by hot water poured into glass Dunnes Stores jug
A woman who was scalded when a glass jug she bought in Dunnes Stores exploded after she poured hot water from a kettle into it has been awarded over €56,000 by the High Court.
The jug, Mr Justice Kevin Cross found, did not have a label warning against using it for hot liquids and he accepted Eva Cekanova would not have purchased it if it had the label.
Dunnes Stores he found was negligent to have sold the glass jug without a warning label.
The jug, the judge said was not made of tempered glass and clearly was not suitable for making tea.
Mr Justice Cross said making tea in a glass jug was not an Irish custom, but it is a custom in other parts of the EU.
The cultural certainties, he said of an Ireland of “sturdy youths and maidens dancing at the crossroads” is no longer applicable to this country.
The judge said he accepted that in Slovakia, which is Ms Cekanova’s home country and in parts of Eastern Europe it is the custom to make tea in a glass jug.
Dunnes Stores he said ought to have known people in Ireland from foreign countries will use a glass jug and pour hot water in it.
However, Mr Justice Cross said Ms Cekanova, who has lived in Ireland for a number of years ought to have known tea here is not made in glass jugs and the judge said she had some obligation to check if the jug was suitable before putting hot water in it.
The judge said it might appear harsh, but Ms Cekanova could not escape from a finding of contributory negligence on her part for not checking. The judge found that Dunnes Stores was 75% responsible and Ms Cekanova was 25% liable for the accident.
The warehouse operator, he said, suffered scalding wounds and ugly blisters and has been left with scarring. Mr Justice Cross said she had not exaggerated her complaints and it was highly commendable she returned to work two weeks after the accident.
Mr Justice Cross said she suffered a significant injury and will have the marks from the burns for all of her life.
Assessing the total damages to be €75,844, the judge reduced the award by 25% to allow for the contributory negligence, bringing the final total awarded to €56,883.
Eva Cekanova (30), Windmill Terrace, Clonsilla, Dublin had sued Dunnes Stores over the accident with the jug which she bought at the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, Dublin on December 5, 2015.
It was claimed that when she poured hot water into the jug the following day to make tea, the jug suddenly and without warning shattered showering her legs.
It was claimed there was an alleged failure to ensure the placement of any or any adequate warning on the jug and that she had been sold an allegedly defective and dangerous homeware item.
Dunnes Stores denied all the claims and that the incident occurred as alleged. It contended Ms Cekanova allegedly failed to heed a warning sticker on the jug which Dunnes said specifically states not to use hot water in the jug.
Eva Cekanova who is from Slovakia told the High Court in her home country tea is made in a big glass jug.
She said she boiled a kettle in her Dublin apartment and let it sit for a few minutes before pouring the hot water which was at a temperature of between 80 to 90 degrees on top of a watermelon teabag in the tall jug.
‘I was just making tea, like I did a million times before and it never happened. The water was not boiling,” she said.
She said the tall jug shattered into pieces and she fell back so that the liquid hit her thigh knee and legs and she suffered burns which has left her with scarring.
The High Court heard Dunnes Stores has sold 11,000 such glass jugs, which are hand blown in Mexico in the last four years and the only complaint has been from Ms Cekanova.
