A young boy who sustained severe head injuries requiring lifetime care after a statue of the Blessed Virgin fell on him from a plinth in a school porch is to be paid £1.1 million in a settlement.
This settlement was approved by the High Court yesterday in his action against the school.
Joseph Garland, now aged 12, of Corkhill, Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, brought the action as a result of the accident on September 19th, 1996, at St Etchan's National School, Kinnegad. Suing by his father, James, a craftsman, the boy took the case against the nominee of the school, Mgr Eamonn Marren.
Joseph has severe neurological injuries and remains severely incapacitated, being totally dependent on others for his survival. There was medical opinion that he had suffered a very severe head injury complication by the development of cerebral contusions and had to have a tube inserted into his stomach to facilitate his feeding.
Mr Justice Johnson was told that Joseph would have to be made a ward of court and gave permission for such an application to be made later to the President of the High Court.
Mr Harold Whelehan SC, for Joseph, said the boy was being collected from the school by his father on the day of the incident. The 3 ft statue was resting on a plinth in the porch and was also designed to have pegs attached from the wall. All that was known was that Joseph's father and another man heard a heavy thud. The statue was found on the ground. Joseph was also on the ground and he was bleeding.
Mr Whelehan said the statue was 70 lb or 80 lb and had been in position for eight years. There was no explanation as to why it fell after such a lapse of time.
Joseph was taken unconscious to the General Hospital, Mullingar. He was later transferred to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where he had lengthy treatment. In December 1996, he was transferred back to Mullingar Hospital and later went home for weekends. Since the beginning of the year, he had been living at home.
The boy's parents proposed to retain a carer five days a week and they would "take up the slack", Mr Whelehan said. Other arrangements would be made for respite periods. The cost of care to date and from now on was estimated at £900,000. Other sums were estimated for respite care, appliances, loss of earnings and general damages. The judge said that £100,000 should be paid from the total to the parents who, he said, had incurred huge expense to date.
It was pleaded in the case that there was a failure to ensure that the porch area was in a safe and proper condition and a failure to fix and secure the statue. It was also claimed there was a failure to check the statue regularly to see if it was in a proper condition and a failure to place hooks properly behind it.
The defence denied the claim and pleaded that the injuries did not arise through any act or omission on the school's part and were due to interference by a third party in destabilising the statue. The court was told there was no allegation of contributory negligence by Joseph.