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A great amateur goalkeeper, who injured his big toe while playing footgolf (football played according to the rules of golf), received damages in Circuit Civil Court against the owner of the Co Dublin course.
Stuart O’Dwyer, a messenger driving a pickup truck from Glenhill Avenue, Finglas, Dublin 11, and the Glasnevin FC Leinster Senior League goalkeeper, told Judge John O’Connor that he had been injured kicking the ball out of the rough in a round of footgolf with his dad.
O’Dwyer, who successfully sued Simon Rutledge, of the White House Pub-Restaurant, New Park, The Ward, Co Dublin, said his right foot had hit a metal stake hidden by tall grass just off the tenth green at Rutledge course. He said he was a patron of the White House premises.
Attorney Laurence Masterson told the court Thursday that O’Dwyer’s claim for personal injury damages against Rutledge had not been defended since the proceedings began.
He said O’Dwyer had been injured at the football game on June 14, 2018.
Masterson, who appeared with Francis Callaghan of Spelman Callaghan Solicitors for O’Dwyer, said the County Clerk had entered judgment against Mr. Rutledge in the absence of an appearance in the case.
O’Dwyer told the judge that he played goal for Glasnevin FC at the Leinster Senior League level and that on the day of the fun game with his father he had kicked the ball from the tenth tee onto a very long grass.
As he tried to kick the ball onto the nearby green, his foot had crashed against the metal toe that had been driven firmly into the ground and hidden in the grass.
He had injured the big toe on his right foot and had to go to the accident and emergency department at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, after the game.
He had been treated by Mr. JA McKeever, an emergency medicine consultant who diagnosed him with a soft tissue injury.
The court heard that Mr. O’Dwyer had lost his big toenail and was left with a slight deformity in the form of a small lump on his toe after the toenail had grown back.
She told Mr. Masterson that she had suffered severe pain, aches and bruises on her toe that had been splinted on a friend’s strap at the hospital where she had been placed on crutches. He did not have to miss work and did not file a claim for lost earnings.
O’Dwyer said he had been reunited with family members 10 days after the accident on a reserved vacation to Florida and while his injury had not specifically ruined the vacation, he had suffered some pain and discomfort. His injury had healed after about nine months.
The judge said he felt that compensation would fall to the lower end of the Circuit Court’s jurisdiction and awarded O’Dwyer € 16,000 in damages and legal costs from Circuit Court against Rutledge, who was neither in court nor legally represented.
The judge had been asked, based on the original judgment, to assess the damages against Rutledge.
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