A MAN who claims to have suffered brain damage after being injured while playing on a farm as a child has gone to court seeking £950,000 compensation.
Craig Anderson, 21, says that farmers John and Antoinette Imrie did not do enough to prevent him from injuring himself when he was eight years old.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard how Mr Anderson was playing with the couple’s son Ben at Hillhead Farm, in Torrance, in East Dunbartonshire in 2003.
Mr Anderson, of Perth, told the court he was playing football in a field with Ben when the pair decided to herd sheep through a gate into a steading.
He told his advocate Robert Skinner that he climbed on to the first rung of the gate and lifted the chain from the metal post to open it. However, as he did so, the gate fell on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
Mr Anderson said that the steading wasn’t properly secured when he attempted to open the gate and this caused it to fall on him.
He was giving evidence on the first day of a proof at Scotland’s highest civil court. His lawyers are seeking compensation from the Imries, who lived at Hillhead Farm at the time of the accident.
According to legal documents, Mr Anderson seeks compensation on the basis that the Imries had a duty to see that he, as an eight-year-old, didn’t suffer injury.
His lawyers claim he has suffered a brain injury that affected his academic performance and his ability to form and maintain relationships.
The Imries, who are represented by Kay Springham QC, have lodged defences to the action. They say that while they are farmers and lived at Hillhead Farm for at least 10 years before the incident, they fulfilled all duties of reasonable care towards Mr Anderson.
The proof, which is being heard before judge Lord Pentland, continues.
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