A young Co Donegal girl who was badly burned when her summer dress caught fire has lost her High Court claim for damages against the manufacturer and retailer of the dress, Adams Childrenswear Ltd.
Miss Justice Carroll ruled that a fire warning on a tag in the side seam of the dress was adequate warning.
Noreen Rodgers, now aged nine, of Kincasslagh, was six when the accident happened on October 3rd, 1999. Suing through her mother, the child claimed the dress was bought in an Adams outlet in Derry in August 1999. The company said it sold 19,000 of that particular type of dress without incident.
The accident happened in the kitchen of the Rodgers family home where there was an open fire. The court was told there was a screen fireguard covering the grate. Ms Rodgers had given evidence that her daughter came into the kitchen, took up a photograph which was on the centre of the mantelpiece above the fire and asked her mother to look at it.
Ms Rodgers said she looked and turned away. She then heard a scream, and Noreen ran towards her with her dress on fire.
In her reserved judgment yesterday dismissing the child's action for damages, Miss Justice Carroll said the child had received burns to her abdomen which had healed very well. She also had a scar on her left upper thigh.
It was her view that the dress was a safe product, and the company was not liable. The dress was not made of the most flammable material. A dress was not dangerous of itself but could go on fire if a child was permitted to be so close to a fire that the flames could reach the fabric. That had happened in this case.
When it was bought, the dress had a woven label with the Adams logo, along with a swing cardboard tag, neither of which contained a fire warning. It also had a label sewn into the side seam with information as to the type of material (100 per cent viscose) and a fire warning in red stating: "Keep away from fire."
An engineer had told the court that the guard on the fire had to have been moved in some way to allow the dress to reach the flames, the judge noted.