Woman who sued school over ball game accident 13 years ago loses case
A 22-year-old woman who tumbled over a bench fracturing her arm as she played a ball game when a schoolgirl has lost her High Court action for damages.
Kellie Gregan had claimed the accident in her Dublin school 13 years ago has left her with three scars on her arm and she only wears long-sleeved clothes.
Mr Justice Kevin Cross said the then nine-year-old girl suffered a a nasty injury which he said occurred when the girl fell over a bench while playing the game bench ball.
He described the young woman as a most truthful and honest witness but said she had not established in her case that it was unreasonable for the school not to have mats on the floor at the bench.
Dismissing the claim and ordering that each side pay their own costs, the judge said Ms Gregan was a most honourable witness who had not in any way exaggerated her injuries,
Ms Gregan was in third class at St Joseph’s National School, East Wall, Dublin, when the accident happened in 2006.
She was playing bench ball where she had to stand on a bench and had to catch the ball thrown by her teammates.
She told the court she missed the ball and got off the bench to retrieve the ball but lost her footing as she tried to get back on the bench and fell across it onto the floor.
She said a bone in her arm had popped out and there was also blood. She later had to have three operations to the arm and has been left with three scars.
“I don’t show off my arm. I wear a lot of long sleeves,” she told Mr Justice Kevin Cross.
Kellie Gregan (aged 22) of Crescent Gardens, East Wall, Dublin had sued the board of management of St Joseph's National School, East Wall, as a result of the accident in September 2006.
She had claimed there was an alleged failure to allow the girl to perform an unreasonably and unnecessarily dangerous act in allowing her to climb or attempt to climb the bench. She had further claimed there was an alleged failure to place around the bench any mats such as would have broken her fall.
The school denied the claims and contended the students were playing a different game of dodge ball at the time and Kellie Gregan was not required to stand on a bench.
The school girl, it is contended, opted to mount the bench and did so in a careless manner causing injury to herself for which the school it claimed it was not liable.
