The High Court awarded Paul O’Toole €91,129.80 after finding that a pothole on the R494 between Portroe and Ballina caused his cycling accident in April 2014 and that Tipperary County Council was liable for negligence and misfeasance.
In a judgment delivered on 25 July 2018, Ms Justice O’Hanlon accepted O’Toole’s account of the fall and the evidence of his witnesses. She found, on the balance of probabilities, that he fell after hitting the pothole and that the accident was foreseeable.
O’Toole said he was cycling downhill in wet conditions when he struck the hole. The court heard that he suffered rib and collarbone fractures, a punctured lung and hearing and shoulder injuries. His wife described his clothing as wet and heavy when she collected it after the accident. The judge also relied on the meteorologist’s evidence that localised rain or dampness was possible that day.
A neighbour, John Hogan, told the court the pothole had been present for seven to eight years and had been repaired repeatedly. He said repairs could last only two or three months. The court also considered a January 2014 complaint about a bad pothole opposite a house with a tennis court, and council evidence that the road had been repaired after snow in 2018 and still needed repair.
The council disputed that the evidence established liability, arguing that a failure to maintain a road was nonfeasance and that O’Toole had not kept a proper lookout. The plaintiff’s case was that earlier repairs had been ineffective. The judge accepted that submission, distinguishing a failed repair from a simple failure to maintain the road. She concluded that the evidence established negligence and misfeasance by the council.
The court assessed general damages at €85,000. Special damages of €6,129.80 had been agreed, bringing the total award to €91,129.80. The judgment records that total award; it does not specify any further order.