A woman who had filed an insurance claim of $820,000 claiming that she had suffered debilitating injuries in a car accident has had her claim dismissed after it was proven that she won a Christmas tree-throwing contest a year after the accident.

On February 3, 2017, Kamila Grabska was involved in a car accident on her way to work in the Irish town of Ennis. The car she was a passenger in was rear-ended, which allegedly left her with debilitating physical trauma. The 36-year-old mother of two recently told insurance company RSA Insurance for damages, claiming that the chronic pain in her back, neck, and thoracic spine made her unable to work, which resulted in a loss of income of more than €500,000 ($542,000). She told a High Court in Limerick that her pain kept her in bed on bad days and prevented her from carrying relatively light loads, like bags of groceries. However, they didn’t stop her from participating in, and actually winning Christmas tree throwing contests.

Photo: Troy Tolley/Flickr

Court documents show that Grabska told a doctor that she couldn’t lift a bag of groceries two days before participating in the 2018 annual Christmas Tree Throwing Championships in Ennis. Photos uploaded to social media platforms like Facebook and discovered by the insurance company‘s lawyers show the woman wearing a yellow jacket and forcefully throwing a large fir tree. Another photo shows her smiling as she poses with a plaque declaring her the winner of the women’s Christmas tree-throwing contest on January 7, 2018.

Asked by the lawyers if she felt any pain while participating in the tree-throwing contest, the 36-year-old said that she was indeed in pain, but she was “trying to live a normal life”.

Despite the very graphic evidence contradicting her claims, Kamila Grabska insisted that the 2017 car accident had left her with severe chronic pain which forced her to quit her job. She claimed that there were days when her husband had to bring her medication just so she could get up from bed, and that she couldn’t even play with her kids. Interestingly, during the trial, the insurance company’s lawyers also produced a video showing the woman play-wrestling with a “large and strong” Dalmatian dog in the park for up to an hour and a half, despite her alleged injuries.

Kamila Grabska had filed the $820,000 insurance claim for past and future loss of income, but in light of the evidence shown in court, the judge had no choice but to dismiss her claim as exaggerated.

“It is a very large, natural Christmas tree and it is being thrown by her in a very agile movement,” the judge said. “I’m afraid I cannot but conclude the claims were entirely exaggerated. On that basis, I propose to dismiss the claim.”