Teacher sues over fallen branch

A secondary school teacher injured by a falling branch is suing the Environment Agency for up to £300,000.

Doreen Prior, of Barcombe, East Sussex, sustained a cut to her head as a result of the impact, caused by a diseased branch from an ash tree, in April 2007.

Her solicitor said since being injured on a public footpath at Barcombe Mills, Ms Prior had not worked and suffered from tiredness and an impaired memory.

An Environment Agency spokesman said the case was with its solicitors.

Ms Prior, who is also said to have trouble multi-tasking since the incident, has been a teacher for 10 years.

Her solicitor Laura Middleton-Guerard said if there had been a proper system of inspection by the landowner, the Environment Agency, then the poor condition of the branch would have been identified.

'Quality of life'

"We are not going for a high threshold. We are not saying that the tree should have been inspected every 10 minutes, but perhaps once every two years.

"If someone had just walked along and glanced at the tree they would have seen its condition.

"It was a tree adjacent to the public footpath on a high usage site."

She added: "We are dealing with someone who has suffered a serious head injury who is now reliant on her family both financially and emotionally, and this has had an impact on her quality of life.

"What we are trying to do is restore some of that quality of life for her."

Ms Middleton-Guerard said the Environment Agency had denied liability and that there were no measures in place to pay for Ms Prior's rehabilitation.