Posted: July 17th, 2019
A young girl who fractured her ankle jumping off a trampoline has settled her fractured ankle compensation action for €35,000 at the High Court. Legal representation for 13-year-old Shauna O’Gorman told the court that they believed there had been a failure to oversee the activity on the trampoline properly, a failure to ensure the matting was safely in place and that a hazard was allegedly creating an obstruction in the activity area. These allegations were not accepted denied by the defendants and it was claimed that there was alleged negligence on the part of the school girl. The argument was that the girl landed on a crash mat in an awkward fashion. Along with this the defence said that the girl had not made them aware that she had previously broken her left foot. The defence team also stated that Shauna had not adhered to the specific and repeated instructions given to her regarding the correct style to land on the mats. Shauna was at a gymnastic event as part of a school tour and children were taking turns jumping on the trampoline. Ms O’Gorman, who had previously jumped on the trampoline once, was just finishing her second go when the accident happened. Sara Moorehead SC, legal counsel for Shauna, told the Judge that the children were jumping on the matting on the floor. Another parent said that she was of the opinion that the mats on the floor were not close enough together. Justice Kevin Cross was told that an MRI last year indicated that the child’s ankle was now as good as new. After the accident Shauna had a plaster on her ankle and was not allowed to go on the first week of a family in Turkey that year. However she was permitted to fly to her family for the second week. Shauna, took the fractured ankle compensation claim via her father Joseph O’Gorman, against Irish Gymnastics Ltd, trading as Gymnastics Ireland with offices at Blanchardstown, Dublin and which operates as Excel Gymnastics, Celbridge Industrial Estate, Celbridge, Co Kildare due to the accident that happened on June 12, 2015. In giving his approval for the child injury compensation settlement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said it was a good settlement as it was possible that Ms O’Gorman would not succeed if the case continued.Categories: Child Accidents, Personal Injury Claims
