A girl whose ballet dancing hopes were dashed five years ago when her right ankle was broken in several places has lost a claim for £30,000 damages against her school.
Lisa Cahill (17), of Seapark Drive, Clontarf, Dublin, told her counsel, Mr Lorcan Connolly, she fell on a staircase at St John the Baptist Girls' National School on a day when staff numbers were down due to the funeral of a senior schoolteacher.
Mr Connolly told Dublin Circuit Civil Court the school had been negligent in its supervision of pupils and had a staircase that was defective and unsafe.
Lisa, who was 12 when the accident occurred, said she fell while descending the stairs. Her right ankle had been broken in several places and she had to have two operations and intensive physiotherapy over the past five years.
"My big love is ballet dancing which I have been doing since I was four years old," she told Mr Declan Buckley, counsel for the Clontarf school. "I was out of it for long periods but I always wanted to go back. I did partial training but it was very painful. Even walking was difficult."
Judge Liam Devally said Lisa had obeyed a school rule which said girls had to proceed in pairs on stairways, but she had said her friend had gone on ahead and she was on her own when the accident occurred.
"I have to ask what the school authorities did that was wrong and I cannot find on the evidence that there was any wrong on their part," the judge said.
He believed the girls had run down the stairs and Lisa's ankle had gone from under her on a right-angle turn on the staircase. He felt the stairway was totally suited for its purposes, and scientific tests had shown there had been adequate adhesion on the steps.
The judge dismissed the claim and made no order as to costs.