A CO Cork company which supplies check-out desks to shops and supermarkets was held in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday to have been liable for damages in a case in which a six-year-old girl was injured when her arm was trapped in a conveyor belt.
Judge Peter Smithwick, President of the District Court, who created judicial history this week by sitting as a judge of the Circuit Court, heard that Nicole Sutherland, of Parslickstown Drive, Mulhuddart, Dublin, had been helping her mother place goods on the check-out conveyor.
Ms Eileen McAuley, counsel for the girl, told Judge Smithwick the accident happened at Supervalu, Finglas. While the child had not been seriously physically injured she had developed a phobia about conveyor belts and shopping in general.
Judge Smithwick said there had been a fault in the check-out unit, which had been supplied to the store only two months earlier by Storefit Shop Fitters Ltd, Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Wilton, Cork. The space between the conveyor belt and the frame of the desk had been excessively wide and had led to the girl's arm being trapped.
Awarding her £5,000 damages against Storefit and dismissing the claim against Supervalu, Judge Smithwick said it would be imposing an unreasonable duty of care on shopkeepers to ask them to continuously police children helping their mothers putting goods on conveyor belts at checkouts.