Posted: October 20th, 2020
At the Circuit Civil Court a 16-month-old toddler, who fell and struck her head against a piece of furniture in a Dublin creche, has had a €32,500 creche injuries settlement approved.
Presiding Judge John O’Connor heard in the Circuit Civil Court that the girl in question, two-year-old Jessica Nugent, sustained a permanent scar to the centre of her forehead. Jessica’s legal Counsel, barrister Graham Quinn , make the court aware the accident took place during August 2016 not long after Jessica had been left off at the Giraffe Childcare Creche at Milltown Road, Mount St Anne’s, Milltown, Dublin.
Mr Quinn said that the young girl, who will turn three in December, took the legal action against Giraffe Childcare via Limited through her father Ronan Nugent. The court was told that Jessica was in a playroom at the Milltown creche when she fell against a piece of furniture and sustained a laceration to the middle of her forehead.
After the accident, Jessica was taken to hospital for further treatment. Here she underwent a procedure which involved the open laceration being closed with surgical glue. Despite their best efforts Jessica was left with a permanent, visible scar. When the accident occurred Jessica and her parents in Dublin had been living in Cork. However, since that time they have relocated to Rosehill, Castletreasure, Douglas, Co Cork.
Mr Quinn informed Judge O’Connor that there is no CCTV footage record of the accident. In addition to this the young child’s fall had not been witnessed by any employee at the creche. Due to this no one was certain as to how the accident actually occurred.
The Judge was advised, by Mr Quinn, that the creche owners had increased a previous creche accident compensation offer of €23,000 to €32,500. He added that he was recommending that this be approved by the court.
Judge O’Connor approved the settlement offer which he considered to be good and commented that said the scar could still be seen within conversational distance of Jessica.
Giraffe Childcare Limited, previously registered as Giraffe Childcare Unlimited Company with a registered address in Lucan, Co Dublin, was also directed to pay the legal costs of the plaintiff.
Categories: Child Claims
