A child said to have made a good recovery from injuries suffered after being struck by a car on the road outside her Dublin home has secured a €40,461 settlement of her High Court action.
Millie Markey, suing by her mother Martina, of Barnwell Avenue, Ongar, Dublin, took proceedings against Mary Keaney, also of Barnwell Avenue, over the accident which happened on the afternoon of September 28th 2019, when the child was aged four.
Ms Keaney denied any liability and pleaded the child ran out suddenly between parked cars, giving her no chance to avoid her.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons, when approving the settlement offer this week, noted there was a significant risk of establishing liability if the case proceeded.
He was told there was no witness to the accident and the defendant, an older neighbour, claimed it was a ‘dart out’ collision.
Supervision
There was also a potential issue about supervision because, while Millie’s parents believed she was inside their home with another child, it appeared she had left to go across the road to collect her friend, the judge noted. That was a “perfectly understandable” mistake but may have affected the case had it proceeded to trial.
He said discussions concerning the full valuation of the case, probably some €100,000, were “almost abstract” because the case was “so problematic”.
Counsel for the child had recommended the settlement offer of €40,461 be ruled.
The judge said the offer was comfortably within 50 per cent of a "realistic maximum" in this case and he would rule it. He made an agreed order for legal costs on the Circuit Court scale, save for High Court costs of the ruling and outlay.
Full recovery
Earlier, the judge heard Millie suffered a foot fracture, spent time in a cast and walking boot and has a bony bump on the left frontal bone of the skull.
She has achieved full recovery in terms of the fracture and has a normal gait. While she was significantly stressed following the accident and experienced night terrors, psychotherapy counselling had resolved her psychological difficulties and her daughter had reverted to “her normal happy self”, her mother said in an affidavit.
The defendant had acknowledged that Millie’s resilience in recovering quickly from the psychological impact and not allowing the bump impact on her happiness as a child was to the credit of the child and her parents, the court was told.
Her mother, for "reasonable and rational" reasons, had decided not to consult a plastic surgeon about the bump, counsel for Millie added.
