Man scalded with gravy while working at Dublin GAA club carvery awarded €20,000

A man who is currently in prison has been awarded €20,000 damages for personal injuries against Dublin’s Parnell’s GAA club.

Barrister John Nolan told the Circuit Civil Court that Craig McDonnell was scalded when gravy was spilt on to his arm while he worked as a trainee kitchen porter at the Coolock-based club.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan heard that McDonnell was participating in a Youth Reach work placement scheme when the incident occurred in April 2014 while he was manning the gravy station at a lunchtime carvery.

Mr Nolan, who appeared with Tracey Solicitors, said it was his client’s job to pour gravy onto the plates of customers after they were served their food.

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McDonnell, with an address at Longdale Terrace, Ballymun, said a customer returned to the carvery with a plate looking for more gravy and a commis chef reached across him to provide it.

As he did so, the court heard, very hot gravy accidentially poured from a ladle onto McDonnell’s left arm. He was brought to the emergency department at nearby Beaumont Hospital where his wound was dressed.

McDonnell also sued two youth training agencies, but the case against each of them was dismissed by Judge O’Sullivan, who only awarded damages against Parnell’s. However, the judge refused to make an order for legal costs on behalf of the two youth agencies against the GAA club.

Judge O’Sullivan said he believed McDonnell was honest in his evidence regarding what had happened on the day and how. He said he did not think there had been any contributory negligence on the part of McDonnell, who was a teenager at the time.

“He suffered first degree burns and, while they are not the worst type of burns, they were a lot worse than people at first associate with burn injuries,” Judge O’Sullivan said.

“He did not get treated right away and had to be taken to hospital. His injury had been sore for a number of weeks afterwards and he has been left with a permanent scar which is not small.”