High Court case over baby scalded with coffee settled for €48,500

A settlement has been reached in a High Court action brought on behalf of a six-year-old boy claiming he was scalded as a baby when he pulled a coffee pot from a hotel table onto him.

The case, brought on behalf of Daniel Jack Dugan, from Northern Ireland, was settled for €48,500 without an admission of liability.

Daniel was on a mini-break with his family at the Clarion Hotel, in Liffey Valley, Dublin, when the incident happened in July 2016.

On the second day of the hearing, on Friday, the High Court was told the case had been settled without an admission of liability.

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The previous day, his counsel Micheál Ó Scanaill SC, said Daniel was “scalded from top to bottom by the coffee, from shoulder to arm to flank”, and medics later said burns covered about 10 per cent of his body.

Mr Ó Scanaill SC, with Clodagh Brick BL, told the court that on the morning of the accident the boy who was only six months old was sitting in a buggy that had a car seat attachment, so he was level with the table where the family was having breakfast.

Liability, he said, was very much at issue in what he described as an “all or nothing case”.

At issue in the case was where the coffee pot was placed on the hotel breakfast table. Daniel’s side claimed the coffee was placed in an allegedly precarious position at the edge of the table within reach of the baby.

The hotel, which denied all claims, contended the coffee pot was put in the middle of the table and if the baby suffered an injury, it was the result of an unfortunate accident not due to any alleged negligence by the hotel or its staff.

Daniel, of The Beeches, Killinchy, Co Down, had through his mother, Lynsey Willis, sued Kingsoak Taverns Ltd, with offices at Morrison’s Island, Cork city, and trading as the Clarion Hotel as a result of the accident at the Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley, Dublin, on July 14th, 2016.

It was claimed there was a failure to manage or operate a safe hotel or breakfast room environment and the coffee was placed in an inherently dangerous manner. All the claims are denied.

On the second day of the hearing, Mr Ó Scanaill told Mr Justice Paul Coffey the hotel was very busy and there were 120 people booked in for breakfast on the morning of the incident. He said the parents had ordered coffee but they could not say they saw the coffee arrive at the table.

He said the boy’s scarring has improved very dramatically.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Coffey said the scalding was of a very serious and alarming nature and the parents must have been hugely traumatised as well.

The judge said he was satisfied, because the litigation risk in the case was very great in relation to liability, to approve the offer, which he said was fair and reasonable.