A judge has been told a young woman, permanently scarred because of the negligence of a fun theme park, may never receive a penny of £10,000 damages awarded against the company yesterday because it was not insured.
Mr Colm P. Condon, for Ms Julie Anne Cauley, Loughlinstown Park, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, now 20, told Judge Peter Smithwick in the Circuit Civil Court that Irish Game Fisheries Ltd, which traded as Clara Lara Fun Park, had no insurance. "As far as I know, the company has never had any insurance and there is no reality as to ever recovering anything against Irish Game Fisheries Ltd," he said.
Mr Condon said as far as he knew it did not own the facility and Ms Cauley would probably find herself at the end of a long queue of judgment creditors.
Judge Smithwick said judgment had already been granted by the court against Irish Game Fisheries Ltd, of Knockrath, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, which runs Clara Lara Fun Park and which did not defend Ms Cauley's action.
Judge Smithwick said the owners were negligent to have allowed seven children, part of a group on a one-day visit to the fun park, to be in a canoe designed for one person. The canoe had rammed another in which Julie Anne, then 14, was paddling, overturning both. Julie Anne was knocked into the water and struck under the eye by an oar. She had been left with a permanent facial scar.
Judge Smithwick dismissed a joint claim against the Catholic Youth Council, D·n Laoghaire, Co Dublin, which had organised the trip. He refused to grant an "order over" for CYC's legal costs against Ms Cauley and awarded them directly against Irish Game Fisheries Ltd.