Woman who lost €40,000 Wicklow case just got very bad news
The woman's case would have had major implications for cyclists enjoying the great outdoors.
The hillwalker whose €40,000 compensation award was overturn has been told she must pay the costs of that case herself.
Teresa Wall, who fell on the Wicklow Way and sued the National Parks and Wildlife Service for her injuries now faces a very large bill.
She must pay her own costs in the case and the National Parks and Wildlife Service will pay its own costs.
The case was seen as highly significant for all of those who enjoyed the outdoors, including off-road cyclists.
Had the award stood, any land owner who allowed medications to their land for cyclists, hill walkers and others would have been obliged to constantly ensure those modifications – such as trails – were in good order.
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Otherwise they would have left themselves open to be sued by people injured on their lands.
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Many believed landowners would have refused people access to their lands to avoid being sued.
And no the fact Ms Wall must pay costs should act as a deterrent to others.
Ms Wall said she had fallen after her foot got caught in a hole on old railway sleepers used to construct a walkway on the Sally Gap to Djouce trail near Roundwood.
She had sued the National Parks and Wildlife Service as it was they who placed the sleepers. Last year the Circuit Court found the service negligent and ordered it to pay Ms Wall €40,000.
However, the High Court has last month overturned that award, though it accepted Ms Wall was a “genuine person” whose active lifestyle had been affected by the fall.
Mr Justice Michael White said when there was “high degree of negligence” on Ms Wall’s part because “she was not looking at the surface of the boardwalk when she fell.”
The Irish Farmers’ Association last month welcomed the judgement overturning the award for the fall in 2013.
“The finding that an onus exists on the walker to have a duty of care is an important recognition from a landowner’s perspective. This should help to ease the concerns of farmers,” said IFA hill farmers chairperson Pat Dunne
“Public liability insurance cover is provided to private landowners who permit waymarked walking trails to be developed across their land. The commitment in the Programme for Government to increase funding to €4m and bring in an additional 2,000 farmers must now be acted upon.
“While the judgment relates to property owned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it also has relevance for private land owners, mainly farmers, where hill walkers ramble off designated routes.”
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