Girl found two-thirds responsible for wall accident

A judge in the Civil Court yesterday found a girl who climbed a wall two-thirds responsible for the ensuing accident in which a stone slab fell on her hand and led her to lose two fingers.

Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia found the people responsible for building the wall, Silvio Camilleri and Master Wine Limited, one-third responsible.

He gave a preliminary judgment in the suit filed by Alex and Cheryl Camilleri on behalf of their minor daughter Rebecca.

They claimed that their daughter was injured when a stone slab from a wall constructed by defendants had fallen upon her hand on December 20, 1998 at San Pawl tat-Targa.

As a result of this accident, Rebecca Camilleri lost two fingers, and the court was requested to order defendants to make good the damages sustained.

On their part, defendants pleaded that they were not responsible for the accident, and that the Camilleris were primarily responsible as they had not provided adequate custody of their daughter.

They also pleaded that the wall had been built correctly, and that it had not been completed because a warrant of prohibitory injunction had been issued by third parties in respect of the wall.

The court heard Alex Camilleri testify that he had asked his daughter to bring him a calculator from the house next door to the shop he was in.

He had then heard his daughter screaming, and had found out that she had climbed onto the wall which had then collapsed.

As a result of this accident, Rebecca Camilleri had lost two fingers.

Mr Justice Valenzia noted that plaintiffs had testified that the wall was dangerous and badly built while defendants had pleaded that the accident occurred because the girl had leaned on the wall which was correctly built.

The court-appointed architect had established that the wall was made of stone slabs, and that the slabs had been affixed by tar of adequate quality.

The architect found that the wall would have been more stable had it been thicker.

However, the wall appeared to have been properly built.

The architect noted that the construction of the wall had not been completed, as a warrant of prohibitory injunction had been issued in its regard.

Thus the wall was not joined to other walls, and so some of the stone courses were not entirely connected to others.

It resulted that the stone slab that fell was not completely affixed to other slabs, and so it could be easily pushed over or fall alone.

Defendants had to be found responsible, at least in part, for the accident, as they had been duty bound to protect third parties from any damage that could result from the fact that the wall was not completed.

However, Mr Justice Valenzia found that the minor child was also to blame for the accident, for she had leaned on the wall.

The court found that the child had climbed onto the wall along with two other children, and they had leaned on the wall which had then collapsed.

Rebecca Camilleri had not made an ordinary or reasonable use of the wall, for it had only been constructed as a boundary wall.

Thus she was also responsible for the accident.

In conclusion the court found that defendants were responsible as to one-third for the accident, while Rebecca Camilleri was responsible as to two-thirds.