Nadur Local Council and a building contractor have been ordered by a court to pay over €15,000 to a woman who was injured when she was at a belvedere in the locality.
Caroline Debono filed her writ of summons in the Gozo courts against the council. The contractor, JCR Limited, was later called into the suit.
Ms Debono told the court that in April 2002 she had gone for a walk in the belvedere in Nadur. She had stumbled into a hole in the ground which was not covered and had suffered a permanent disability. Ms Debono added that the belvedere was being constructed by the council which had failed to protect the public from dangers on site, and she called upon the court to order the council to make good the damages she had sustained.
The council pleaded that although it was the owner of the site where the accident took place, it was not responsible for the accident. It also submitted that Ms Debono was responsible for the accident as she had entered a site that was not yet open to the public.
Magistrate Anthony Ellul however dismissed the council’s pleas and held both the council and the contractor, which had not filed any plea, jointly liable in damages towards Ms Debono. The court noted that although works were still ongoing on the site of the belvedere, it was not convinced that the site was only accessible to workmen.
Ms Debono had entered the site through an entrance which was open. Other witnesses produced by Ms Debono confirmed that the site was accessible to the public. Magistrate Ellul added that the council could not exonerate itself from responsibility in this case. The council had control over the site and it was therefore obliged to perform a duty of care to the public who made use of it.
The cause of Ms Debono’s accident was not the fact that she had entered the site, but the fact that the site was open to the public and that there was a hole in the ground which had not been covered.Consequently, the court held both the council and the contractor which was carrying out the works jointly liable in damages. Magistrate Ellul therefore ordered both defendants to pay Ms Debono €15,392.38 (equivalent to Lm6,607.95) in damages.