A QUADRIPLEGIC WOMAN, who lost her battle in the Supreme Court to recover $30 million in damages from three companies, including Town and Country Resorts, has taken her case to the Court of Appeal.
Alexander Rickham, 21, student, of Bath University, London, who suffered spinal injury eight years ago while swimming at Mammee Bay beach, St. Ann, is asking the Court of Appeal to find that Mr. Justice Basil Reid erred when he held that she did not establish that the defendants were under a duty to warn users of the beach that the water was shallow.
Miss Rickham and her mother, who were guests at the Enchanted Garden Hotel and Spa, Ocho Rios, St. Ann, went to Mammee Bay beach on July 30, 1995. Miss Rickham, who was 13 at the time, dived in the water and suffered spinal injury.
Mr. Justice Reid ruled in February this year that he could find no basis on which to make an award to Miss Rickham. The judge said that shallow water was not a danger of which the defendants were under a duty to warn users of the beach.
GROUNDS OF APPEAL
Miss Rickham has filed several grounds of appeal, in which she is asking the Court of Appeal to find that the defendants Town and Country Resorts, which managed the hotel at the time of the incident, Consulting Services Ltd., and Mammee Bay Club Ltd. are negligent and therefore responsbile for her injury. Mammee Bay Club Ltd. was sued because it gave permission for the operators of the hotel to use the beach. Opposition Leader Edward Seaga is a major shareholder in Town and Country Resorts and a director of Consulting Services Limited.
