The High Court has dismissed an attempt by Deerpark Montessori School to recover part of a €90,000 injury settlement from the Representative Church Body of the Church of Ireland over an accident at St Mary’s Church Parish Centre in Howth.
The case arose from an incident on 19 April 2018, when a three-year-old girl attending the Montessori was injured by a single bramble shoot in a garden area used by children from the school. The bramble tore the child’s skin from the upper part of her nose across the eyelid of her left eye.
The school later settled the child’s personal injuries claim for €90,000 plus costs. That settlement was ruled by the High Court in March 2022, although the church had not consented to it.
The school subsequently sought an indemnity or contribution from the church, arguing that it should have identified and removed the bramble or warned the school about the potential hazard.
Mr Justice Tony O’Connor rejected that argument. Evidence showed that the church regularly maintained the garden, including grass cutting, hedge trimming and removing brambles. The judge found the particular shoot had grown only in the days before the accident and had not been noticed by either the church or the school.
The court also noted that Deerpark Montessori had its own daily inspection procedure requiring staff to check the garden for hazards before children were allowed outside. Two trained adults supervised outdoor play, and the school had carried out a risk assessment shortly before the accident.
The judge found that requiring the church to warn experienced Montessori staff that a bramble might grow between routine maintenance visits would go beyond reasonable care.
The school’s contribution claim was therefore dismissed. The court indicated that, subject to any further submissions, the church was entitled to its costs of defending the proceedings.