A three-year-old boy who injured his arm while allegedly unsupervised in his creche playground was awarded €15,000 in the Circuit Civil Court on Friday.
Judge Jennifer O’Brien heard that Ben Keating had been in the playground of Dundrum Montessori on Barton Road on November 18th, 2022, when he fell and double fractured his right forearm and wrist.
Ben sued the creche through his father, Eoin Keating, of Taney Crescent, Dundrum, Dublin 14, who told the court in an affidavit that his mother had been the first to notice the injury when she arrived to pick him up and bring him home.
Mr Keating said Ben’s mother had asked Ben to take off his jacket and he had refused, at which point she realised he was unable to move his arm.
Barrister Mark J Byrne, who had appeared with Tracey Solicitors, told the judge that Ben had been taken to Crumlin children’s hospital within an hour, where his arm was X-rayed and placed in a cast.
Mr Byrne said the creche had noted in a report that Ben had fallen from a bicycle without suffering an injury. He told the court that CCTV obtained after the incident showed Ben climbing a fence which would suggest the injury had been caused by a fall from it. Ben had also said he had fallen from the fence.
The judge heard Ben had missed two weeks from school. He had remained in a cast for two months before the hospital replaced it with a sling which he wore for a further two weeks. The court was told that after six weeks the injury had been healing well, and that there were no further ongoing effects today.
Mr Byrne told the court that an injury of this nature would usually fall into a range of €3,000 to €10,000 in damages as laid out in the injuries guidelines. The creche had made an offer of €15,000 along with Circuit Court costs which he was recommending to the court.
The judge, approving the offer, said she was glad Ben had since made a good recovery.
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