Impulsive. Ms Moore sued her local council after she inadvertently injured herself attempting to hammer a nail into her wall using her forehead.
In a remarkable new precedent for Australia’s legal system, a woman from Adelaide was, today, awarded compensation for an injury she sustained last year when she attempted to hammer a nail into a wall with her forehead.
The jury refused the traditional deliberation time, handing their verdict immediately to the judge without actually leaving the courtroom, stating later, during a press conference, that they all instinctively knew that justice needed to be served, and swiftly.
Plaintiff, Gillian Moore, was awarded $1.6 billion in a stunning victory against her local council which is being heralded as the victory that needed to happen.
Ms Moore, a self-proclaimed innovator and D.I.Y.er, was renovating her living room in November, last year, when she thought it might be a good idea to try the unusual practice. ‘Up until that point, I’d never used my forehead as a hammer,’ Ms Moore said, ‘I remember reading once that the forehead is the hardest part of the body, and being the innovative person I am, figured I should give it a go.’
There was a bright flash of white light followed quickly by a searing pain.
Ms Moore’s common sense was no match for her impulsiveness as she neglected to consider the ramifications of the hardened piece of steel swiftly coming into contact with the soft flesh covering her skull. ‘No, I didn’t stop to think about it,’ stated Ms Moore in an interview this afternoon, ‘I was just focused on getting that nail into the wall.’
‘It hurt like nothing I can ever recall,’ Ms Moore said. ‘There was a bright flash of white light followed quickly by a searing pain. I knew immediately that something had gone horribly wrong, but I wasn’t entirely sure just how bad it was until I felt the blood running into my eyes and mouth.’
Ms Moore’s sister, Rose Stedman, who was assisting with some cleaning in the bedroom at the time of the incident, heard a raucous and made her way to the living room.
'Gill was just laying there on the floor, trying to sit up. I could see that she was pretty groggy,' exclaimed Mrs Stedman, 'I helped her to sit up and tried to work out what happened.'
As Mrs Stedman found her sister becoming less responsive, she determined to rush her to their local emergency department where she [Ms Moore] was later admitted to hospital for surgery to repair her damaged forehead. It was here, in hospital, during her recovery, that Ms Moore realised just how much her local council had failed her.
‘I should have never been given the opportunity to hurt myself in such a manner,’ Ms Moore said. ‘It was an unacceptable injury and my council should have protected me better.’
Before the ruling this morning, Ms Moore’s lawyer told The Third Day, ‘Her council failed to protect her from herself. They displayed gross negligence by not ensuring that she knew of the dangers surrounding hitting ones forehead against a nail in an attempt to hammer it into a wall. They should have been more proactive in their duty of guaranteeing the safety of their constituents. Anything would have been better than nothing. A sign on Ms Moore’s living room wall, for example, highlighting to her the dangers she faced as a result of her impulsiveness. They should have known better.’
A spokesperson for Ms Moore’s council said only, ‘This is devastating. We should have been more aware of the needs of our community members. We are deeply sorry, and regret not protecting people against themselves more vigilantly.’
This is devastating.
Since the ruling, messages of support have been flooding in from across the globe as the wider community celebrates the victory that will offer even more protection to those already bolstering the shallow end of the gene pool.
Meanwhile, Ms Moore has wasted no time in turning her attention to other agendas.
‘I’ve discovered a cliff with a sheer ten metre drop that doesn’t have any fencing or warning signs to warn people of the danger of the drop,' the now self-appointed crusader stipulated, 'That will need to be fixed. Everything, even the most obvious danger, should have warning signs.'
’I feel that it is now my duty to make sure everyone knows that the protection of an individual is the responsibility of everyone except the individual themselves.’