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A SIX-YEAR-OLD schoolboy, who broke his left wrist after falling in a pothole in his garden, has been awarded €10,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court and may have a new home for Christmas.
Barrister Seosaimhin Ni Chathasaigh, counsel for Daniel Maguire, who sued Dublin City Council through his mother Kelly Ann Kenny, told the court that the family had considered the house unfit for human habitation when they moved into the property at Cashel Avenue, Crumlin, Dublin.
The unfit for human habitation allegation, which had been denied by Dublin City Council, was today rejected by Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke. The council had also claimed the family had an obligation to maintain its own garden.
Judge Groarke was told the local authority had made a €10,000 settlement offer without admission of liability. Ms Ní Chathasaigh asked the court to assess whether or not the offer was an appropriate one.
Ms Ní Chathasaigh told the judge that when Ms Kenny, her seven children and her partner Thomas Maguire moved into the house in September 2009 they had not been allowed to inspect it before signing an agreement.
Ms Kenny told Ms Ni Chathasaigh that the family had previously been living in a homeless shelter and had wanted to leave it as soon as possible. She claimed she had only been shown the house sitting room and kitchen through one of its windows but had decided to sign the agreement anyway.
Mr Maguire told the court that it was only after the family had moved in that they had discovered the back garden, in which grass had grown very high, had holes everywhere.
He claimed the garden was regularly used for dumping by unknown people who threw nappies, beer bottles and barbed wire over the fence. The court heard that on one occasion, the garden had been set on fire.
Ms Ni Chathasaigh told the court the children were not allowed to play in the back garden, but Daniel, who was two years old at the time, had followed his mother when she had gone out to hang clothes on the line in October 2010.
He had fallen in a pothole and had been taken to the A&E of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, where X-rays revealed a fracture to his left wrist. He had needed to wear a cast for several weeks.
Ms Ni Chathasaigh said that after the family had complained to the local authority the council had claimed it did not have the funds to repair the garden.
Judge Groarke, approving the €10,000 settlement offer by Dublin City Council, said he was satisfied it was a good and fair offer. He said potholes in a garden did not make a house unfit for human habitation.
The judge heard the family had since moved out of the house while awaiting a new home and were currently living in a caravan.
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Great!!!! So Mr Maguire shouldn’t have to do any work in his garden? How do we all manage to keep house and home?. That’s appreciation for us taxpaying fools
Judge should be sacked
Chris it was the council who made the offer not the judge. The crowd that moved in were homeless but wanted to inspect the home first. If I was homeless and offered a free house I wouldn’t give a crap what it was like so long as it wasn’t a homeless shelter. Nothing stopping the crowd filling in the pothole except a sense of entitlement and that somebody else should do it.
I would totally love to be able to comment on the two stories above….the Pakistani and the politician..
And what of all the council workers not doing their jobs either? – too busy breast-feeding shovels?
It doesn’t matter if it’s social housing – the local authority has a legal obligation to ensure a property is fit for purpose. If it was private rented accommodation (whether funded by the tenant or by rent allowance) – we would expect the landlord to be liable in a similar situation.
Judges don’t make arbitrary decisions in these instances, they look at ALL the facts, most of which are generally omitted from this kind of article.
They are there purely so it will spill over here Joachin…..Have at it.
This whole gimme gimme gimme attitude of some people is unbelievable
This family had no home then they got a free house handed to them to set up home and then have the cheek to complain about the garden
B
@ Matt Connolly
The council decided to to make the payment. I think that says plenty.
It does – it tells me councillors, planning authorities, housing authorities et al are too busy looking after their own interests and have no problem offering settlements of public money for incidents arising out of their own ineptness.
Tis well for you Matt that has ideas in the past. Who the bloody he’ll do you think pays for the improvements. I know most people have to pay and do there own
Landlords don’t usually take care of the gardens in rental properties. Over the course of living there 13 months they did no work on the garden themselves? If I fell in my rented garden I wouldn’t be taking my landlord to court cos it’s my own fault
Charlie,
The Tenants probably has Free Legal Aid, to contest it with would probably cost the council a minimum of 10K.
Sadly its safer to pay out
Beyond a joke!!! 7 kids but unknown sources throw nappies and beer bottles in the garden. Could the partner tend to the garden or would that be considered work
Caravan eh? By choice..yeah..emotional blackmail..the council will give them a proper house next time…
I went around with a friend of mine once who donated firewood to the SVdeP delivering something like 4 bags of blocks to people. I remember going up to one council house and he knocked on the door of the house. I was able to see through the living room window that the father and two teenage sons were sitting in front of a big TV and had a live football match on Sky Sports. The father answered the door, my friend said who we were and what we were doing and asked was to where the firewood was going. The father said “Just bring them around the back and put them in the shed, ta” and the closed the door because he had to rush back in as there was some sort of action in the match!!!
After I got over the shock the way that he dealt with my friend I suggested that we deliver each block through the window, then the TV and then shove them….well you get my drift. 3 able bodied males sitting down watching the match getting free firewood and treating us like servants. To this day I still shake my head when I pass that house . There were plenty of others who were more than grateful and offered us tea and cakes and offered to help carry in the bags because they were glad of it but those three losers still stick in my mind.
Joachin I’d say now that they might want to get used to that caravan for a while as it is very hard to find a good house these days.
Your right murph and another way of saying it would be that the couple in question are low life free loading lazy crusties.
Brian…I hate that “entitled” attitude….does your friend still volunteer?
I’d say they’re well used to the caravan..
Joachin, I don’t know as I haven’t met them in years. He was actually quite philosophical about it in that he said that we should just get on with what we were doing and remember the people who did appreciate our efforts. It wasn’t that we wanted a clap on the back or anything it but an offer of helping out to bring in the bags would have been appreciated even though we would have said we were grand as it wasn’t a heavy load and it was only a short distance.
That being said, our community like so many others in towns is usually served by the same people or network of people who always seem to be the ones who are most involved in various things. Word of that sort of ingratitude towards helping hands soon gets around and I have a funny feeling that those people learnt why there is the old saying about biting the hand that feeds you.
I’m disgusted that taxpayers money was used not only to provide this woman a house but also as a payout because her child, in her care, fell in her garden. Absolute sponges. No sense of personal responsibility and a terrible example to set her children.
This kind of story is absolutely sickening…… 2yr old Child breaks his left wrist because his mother wasn’t looking after him properly, wrist now fixed – child doesn’t even remember the break. What in gods name will €10k do? Greedy money grabbing mother and most irresponsible judge. When will it end????
They should put it into a trust until he is 18
Poor little kid won’t see a penny of that now that a can of Dutch gold has gone up to €2.
Sad fact is there are people out there that actually mortgages themselves for most of their lives to own houses with bigger problems than holes in the garden.
Another free house is on its way to this lady though and I’d say the council will give her something top notch as to try avoid another pay out.
She should get top notch accommodation in mountjoy
I wonder what the garden is like in the homeless shelter?
Or the caravan where they are currently living! Says it all really.
My guess is that if she is now living in a caravan it’s because she was evicted from the house , you don’t just give up a council house ..
Sis…maybe they are more at home in a caravan..
Bro , that’s quite possible but not so sure on this case …
“Unknown people”… My suspicion here is that these scu mbags were just opening the back door and throwin nappies, bottles and rubbish out. Who does this remind me of? Where are they living now? “Givvus ten grand, boss!”
Couldn’t be bothered fixing the garden themselves?
That’s the culture of people who get a house for free.
No one offered to pay him to fill in the holes…
Chancers.
I’d go out and break my own arm but as a hard working tax paying citizen I wouldn’t have a clue how to rape the system like these freeloaders.
I’m sure the little shhh’s medical card covered the hospital bills also.
Free house innit?
So….they then gave up the house to live in a caravan because neither of them could/would fill a pothole but could take the time to fill their wallets at the taxpayers expense. Taxpayers are getting mugged in the courts everyday in this country.
She and her partner told a pack of lies and got away with it . lazy gits would even clean their own garden so the kids could play in it .
* wouldn’t *
This family obviously doesn’t appreciate the hard work and upkeep involved in living in a house. Let them stay in the caravan. People like this are never happy,while using the taxpayer as their personal ATM machine. Let them buy their own house.
That’s just crazy
This country just gets better and better.
And what are you doing to make it better Sam?
10K for a 2 year-old with a fractured wrist. He was in a cast for a few weeks. How did they come up with that figure? Is he a professional snooker player and claiming loss of earnings? The council and judge have a lot to answer for here.
Why didn’t her partner tidy up the back garden?
Because he’s a waster.
With seven kids, you would imagine the parents would have been well used to filling a few holes ffs!
There will be little scut ball kids lashed into holes all over Ireland in corpo gaffs
” Go on Francie, just fall in love…….no Francie!…don’t put your arms out in front of ya……..ah for Jeezes sake!….let me show ya, ya little boll*x….there ya go, that didn’t hurt did it?….what ya mean it didn’t…….com’on then…let’s do it again…it’s for your own good!”
Al Ca…very good!
Very funny!!
Jasus
What a country.
Endless stupid claims, positively encouraged by the Court system, and ambulance chasers. With no price to be paid when found to be fraudulent.
Where is self accountability ?
Child’s play screwing this state
What an absolute joke.
Ya know what !?! I’ve really got to sign up to this gravy train…. I’ve actually genuinely busted myself on a number of occasions on wet floors etc but I always put it down to being my own fault for not spotting the wet floor or whatever…. Guess I should just abdicated all personal responsibility and I’d be sitting on a nice wad of cash.
Take, take, take from tax payers who have to give, give, give! Sickening!
Jesus wept!! How about taking some accountability, tax payer funded bad parenting! How about the partner getting off his h**e and tend to the garden! Or was there a Jeremy Kyle marathon on the tv that day!! Ridiculous judgment .
Herself and her husband were probably too busy at work to have time to fix the garden. ..!!!
Why are these wasters allowed be lifetime beneficiaries of state freebies? Drives me mad when i have to spend 55-60 hours a week away working to fund their lazyness.
They are probably reading this right now on one of their smartphone…..hi!
This is why these freeloaders deserves nothing!
Oh Shhh! I think I feel the PC Brigade lazers lining up on my chest.
No bleeding hearts on this story I see…
Makes me sick to my stomach,just feal like packing in my job ,stop paying my mortgage and going on the dole ,alot better of id bet.
I’m surprised the garden wasn’t all asphalt.
Then the little mites would fall and scratch their knees.
The 10 grand should be user to repair the garden
Why were they not threatened with a counter claim of child neglect after allowing a two year old out in the garden if it was that bad. That surely would have made the first claim go away without any payment from the council. Fight like with like and it was neglect by parents if garden was so unsafe as they say.
The good old welfare state!!!
Perhaps there is a 4×4 Range Rover attached to the caravan
Is it any wonder that landlords won’t accept rent allowance when this is the type of tenant they get,also shame on city council for making offer it costs us all ,I hope they have a nice Christmas in there caravan !!
I broke my thumb commenting on the journal.
What’s in it for me?
OK, I know the claim is kinds ridiculous but there is a deeper issue regards the manner in which councils operate when offering tenancies to people.
There is no option to inspect the property prior to accepting the lease.
Prospective tenants often have to sign acceptance forma in the council offices prior to being offered the key.
There is no guarantee what condition the house is in.
A friend of mine was offered a prospective tenancy and on questioning why he couldn’t view the house before signing the lease was told:
‘The council is not an estate agent’
He asked ‘Would you buy a house before viewing it?’
Immediately:
‘You are not buying the property – you are renting it’.
‘But this could potentially be my home for the rest of my life – I would like to view the place first’
‘Take it or leave it – are you signing the form or not – I haven’t got all day’
That’s the level of service most councils provide today.
Arrogance delivered in a dismissive tone.
It’s wrong. It’s unacceptable.
Go home Tommy! Your drunk!
Tommy , every point you have just made is so not true , either you’re fibbing or your buddy is .
Beg your pardon.
Waterford City Council have adopted that policy for the last four years.
The prospective tenant can not, I repeat CAN NOT view the premises prior to signing the tenancy agreement.
@Damian.
I’m a teetotaller.
Probably one of the few contributors here in a constant state of sobriety.
Stop red thumbing me. It’s the truth.
A shower of w$nk£rs. And it’s getting worse in this country. Anybody who would enter a court charged with and offence, or claiming dressed should either be locked up or thrown out
Dressed like that*
If the Council had bothered to draw up a proper agreement with the tenant – indemnifying them against any claim – these freeloaders would not have been able to bring an action.
The judges neck should be broke .
How about the journal reports on the hundreds of worthy cases going though the courts? Which editor or owner has the pro-superwealth tort reform bee in his bonnet?
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