Woman scalded when jug bought in Dunnes Stores explodes awarded €56,000

A woman who was scalded when a glass jug she bought in Dunnes Stores exploded after she poured hot water from a kettle into it has been awarded more than €56,000 damages by a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Kevin Cross found the jug did not have a label warning against using it for hot liquids and he accepted Eva Cekanova would not have purchased it if it had such a label.

Dunnes Stores, he ruled, was 75 per cent negligent in that it had sold the glass jug without a warning label.

The jug was not made of tempered glass and clearly was not suitable for making tea, he said.

Making tea in a glass jug is not an Irish custom, but is is a custom in other parts of the EU, he added.

The "cultural certainties" of an Ireland of "sturdy youths and maidens dancing at the crossroads"is no longer applicable here.

He accepted that in Slovakia, Ms Cekanova's home country, and other parts of Eastern Europe, it is the custom to make tea in a glass jug.

Dunnes Stores ought to have known that people in Ireland from foreign countries will use a glass jug and pour hot water in it, he said.

However, he also said that Ms Cekanova, who has lived in Ireland for a number of years, ought to have known that tea here is not made in glass jugs.

She had some obligation to check if the jug was suitable before putting hot water in it, he held.

While it might appear harsh, she could not escape from a finding of contributory negligence on her part for not checking, he said.

He found Dunnes Stores 75 per cent responsible and Ms Cekanova 25 per cent liable for the accident.

11,000 such glass jugs sold

She had suffered scalding wounds and ugly blisters and has been left with scarring, he said.

Mr Justice Cross said she had not exaggerated her complaints and it was “highly commendable” she returned to work two weeks after the accident.

She suffered a significant injury and will have the marks from the burns for life.

Assessing total damages at €75,844, he reduced the award by 25 per cent to allow for the contributory negligence , bringing the final award to €56,883.

Eva Cekanova (30), Windmill Terrace, Clonsilla, Dublin had sued Dunnes Stores over the accident with the jug which she bought at the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, Dublin on December 5th,2015.

It was claimed, when she poured hot water into the jug the following day to make tea, the jug suddenly and without warning shattered, showering her legs.

It was claimed there was failure to ensure placement of any or any adequate warning on the jug and that she had been sold an allegedly defective and dangerous home ware item.

Dunnes Stores denied all the claims and denied the incident occurred as alleged. It contended Ms Cekanova failed to heed a warning sticker on the jug which, Dunnes pleaded, specifically states not to use hot water in the jug.

Ms Cekanova said tea is made in a big glass jug in her home country.

She said she boiled a kettle in her Dublin apartment and let it sit for a few minutes before pouring the hot water which was at a temperature of between 80 to 90 degrees on top of a watermelon teabag in the tall jug.

“I was just making tea, like I did a million times before and it never happened. The water was not boiling,” she said.

She said the tall jug shattered into pieces and she fell back so that the liquid hit her thigh, knee and legs and she suffered burns which has left her with scarring.

The High Court heard Dunnes Stores has sold 11,000 such glass jugs, hand blown in Mexico, in the last four years and the only complaint has been from Ms Cekanova.