A LOCAL authority has been ordered to pay €25,000 in damages to a young boy who was bitten by a dog while he was playing in a council playground.
The council’s lawyer warned the ruling could have serious implications for local authorities throughout the State.
According to barrister for Cork City Council Jim Duggan, every local authority could face being held responsible for every stray dog that bit someone in a public place after Judge Patrick Moran found against the council at Cork Circuit Court yesterday.
“It is ridiculous, in my respectful submission, to allow such a wide view as that,” said Mr Duggan during the case. It had been brought by James Keenan on behalf of his son, Patrick Keenan (12), Childers Road, Ennis, Co Clare. Patrick was six at the time and was playing on a roundabout at Loughmahon Park in Mahon, Cork, on July 28th, 2006, when he was bitten by a German Shepherd dog which had wandered over the roundabout.
Patrick had to be kept in hospital as a result of the attack by the dog, which had bitten him on the leg. He spent several days in hospital where he received more than 60 stitches to the wounds.
He has been left with permanent scarring.
Mr Duggan said the council accepted that the boy was injured but said that Mr Keenan’s lawyers had only brought a case against the council because they were unable to track down the owners of the stray dog.
Mr Keenan’s barrister, Micheál Munnelly, said the legislation placed responsibility for a dog on the owner of the land where the dog was kept, but he said that the law also allowed for the owner of land, where a dog was “permitted to remain at any time”, to be held liable.
Mr Duggan said there might be some argument if it was claimed that the particular dog had been in the park for a few days and that Cork City Council had done nothing to remove the animal, but this was not the case in this instance.
Judge Moran said he took the view that Cork City Council did permit a dog to remain at the park for a particular time. “It might be harsh on the local authority but that is my view of the legislation,” he said before putting a stay on the award pending an appeal.