The High Court in Dublin has upheld a claim for dog bite injury compensation in favour of a postman who was bitten on the face while attempting to deliver mail to a Kilbeggan address.
On 8th October 2008, sixty-three year old Joseph Dunne from Kilbeggan, County Westmeath, was delivering mail to an address in Kilbeggan when he was attacked by a husky-type dog that had escaped from the garden of the house through a hole in the hedge.
The big dog jumped up at Joseph and knocked him to the ground, where Joseph was clawed and bitten by the dog. The attack was stopped by two passers-by – one of whom hit the dog across the back with a stick – and Joseph was taken to hospital, were he was treated for lacerations to his face.
Mr Justice Michael Moriarty at the High Court in Dublin was told that Joseph needed 22 stitches to the right side of his face and treatment for nerve damage which affected movement in his forehead. The judge also heard that Joseph later underwent plastic surgery to disguise the worst of the scarring from the attack.
Joseph returned to work soon after the incident and after receiving legal advice made a claim for dog bite injury compensation against the couple who owned the husky – Olive Dalton and Martin Maher of Kilbeggan – claiming that they had been negligent in failing to enclose their garden securely and allowing the dog to escape.
The couple denied their liability for Joseph´s injuries – despite having had the dog put down the day after the attack – but, at the High Court, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty ruled in Joseph´s favour and awarded him €55,000 in settlement of his claim for dog bite injury compensation; commenting that Joseph had been brave to return to work so soon after such a particularly frightening incident.