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| The victim, Abigail Vallo. |
By Vir B. Lumicao
On a day in August 2014, nine-year-old Abigail Vallo was playing ball with friends at a community activity centre in Tung Chung when she crashed into a ceramic flower vase and badly injured herself.
A fragment of the broken vase sliced the side of the child’s left leg from the knee upward and it took surgeons 11 stitches to close the wound. The impact of the crash was so strong that the flesh next to her kneecap was torn off.
For the injury which sidelined her from school for two months, the girl was awarded an undisclosed sum in the six figures in an out-of-court settlement reached at the District Court in late August.
“It was a victory won after two years of battle in court,” Bishop Gerry Vallo of the Jesus The Living God ministry and father of Abigail, told The SUN in an interview on Sept 5.
The fund was ordered by the District Court to be held in escrow and accessible only to the young Vallo when she reaches the age of 18.
The girl is now a Primary 6 student of The Salvation Army Lam Butt Chung Memorial School in Yat Tung, a public housing estate that is part of the Tung Chung new town in North Lantau.
The settlement was reached by solicitors of the two contending parties – the minor Abigail suing through her parent Gerry Vallo, and the Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council in Yat Tung.
The Vallo family was represented by solicitor Ivy Tong, who has handled a number of personal injury and work-related claims by Filipinos in Hong Kong.
“Lawyers of the two parties met in closed chambers then submitted their proposal to the court,” said Vallo, who added that the resolution of the case ended two years of anxiety for his family and trauma for their daughter.
Vallo said his side argued that allowing children to play on the school’s first-floor landing was illegal because the area was not intended as a playground where they could play ballgames.
Secondly, there was no sign warning people to stay away from the area where the accident happened.
“My daughter was only nine when she had to endure four sessions of general anesthesia (for the surgery),” Vallo said.
For nearly two months the girl was out of school as she recuperated from her injury and plastic surgery. “She suffered trauma, she was afraid of the operating room during the time,” the church minister said.
Vallo said his daughter is now recovering although she had to undergo skin graft to repair damaged tissues. He said the accident was a blow to Abigail, the fourth of five siblings and a talented child who played five ball games.
For all his troubles attending to the medical and legal needs of his child, Vallo said he received a $4,000 pay-out.
