A woman has been awarded €25,000 in damages in finger injury compensation following a accident involving on a water meter cover outside her Limerick home in 2012.
Kirdwin Johnson, aged 30 said that she is unable to properly extend her thumb since the accident. She was cleaning when she broke her wrist in the incident on August 4, 2012.
Ms Johnson advised Judge Gerald Keys that her foot became stuck and, as a result, she “fell back on my (her) arm”. The injured arm remained in a cast for a period of approximately six weeks.
Mr Jack Nicholas BL, representing Ms Johnson , asked her show the Court the extent her injury by extending both thumbs. Mr Nicholas also commented that: “The right thumb doesn’t extend as far back as the left thumb.”
The Court also heard that Ms Johnson has a detailed history submitting personal injury claims in the Circuit Court.
When questioned the legal representatives of Limerick City County if she had seen the stopcock on the footpath before falling, she replied: “I have seen it but I never paid attention to it before.”
The orthopaedic consultant who treated Ms Johnson after the accident happened did not “make an issue” of the injured thumb in his official accident report. Ms Johnson stated that she she began to feel a “weakness in her thumbs” while attending her son’s graduation ceremony in 2015.
Ms Johnson’s ailments injuries were examined by Dr Jim Fehily on two occasions, once in September 2016 and another time in December 2017. Dr Fehily said that he felt, after the examination that Ms Johnson’s thumb injury was “unlikely” to be as a result of the accident with the water meter cover in 2012.
While no record of any other complaints about the stopcock/meter involved in the accident, Judge Keys remarked that there were no dates included on the original photographs of the water meter cover presented in court.
Judge Keys said: “I am not saying that this lady is making this up, but I have to be satisfied.” He added that the damaged water meter cover was “trap for anybody and anyone who walks by” and that “you can’t leave a situation like that unattended”.
Judge Keys ruled that he had “no choice but to conclude that the plaintiff succeeds” but was “not satisfied” Ms Johnson’s suffering was related to the fall in 2012.
He awarded Ms Johnson €25,000 in finger injury compensation.
