The High Court found that a fall at Reardens Bar in Cork caused Helen Boland’s ankle injury and, on the balance of probabilities, a neck injury. It ruled that her chronic lower back problems and resulting depression were not caused by the fall.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 14 October 2016, Mr Justice Twomey assessed general damages at €25,700 and special damages at €21,227.66, for a total of €46,927.66. The total was provisional: the court said it would hear any further submissions on which medical expenses related to the injuries for which the defendant was liable, and on the treatment of social welfare payments.
The case concerned an incident on 19 September 2010, when Boland fell down four or five steps at the bar after being accidentally knocked over by doormen ejecting another person. Her ankle sprain cleared up after she used crutches for about 10 days. Her neck pain began several days later and resolved after treatment within a year.
The main dispute was whether the fall caused the lower back pain that Boland said prevented her from working. She underwent back surgery in 2012 to remove a protruding disc, but her pain continued. Her medical evidence included an opinion that the fall was likely a major cause of the disc prolapse. A defence orthopaedic surgeon, Professor Harty, said the fall could not have caused the later back problems because Boland had not experienced acute back pain within 48 hours. The judge found Harty’s evidence persuasive, also noting the plaintiff’s medical expert’s evidence that most lumbar disc protrusions occur spontaneously. The court concluded that the back problems and resulting depression were not caused by the accident.
The judgment also recorded substantial differences in medical examinations of Boland’s ability to raise her leg and in her responses to pain tests. The judge said the defence experts found little or no clinical evidence for the pain she exhibited and treated the evidence about its extent with caution.
For the neck injury, the court accepted that it could have emerged about a week after the fall and found the accident caused it. It assessed damages for the recovered neck injury at €15,700. The minor ankle injury was assessed at €10,000. For lost earnings during the first year, the court awarded €15,525, attributing 75% of that year to loss for which the defendant was liable; the judgment said the neck injury was only one contributing factor. The court left the medical-expenses amount of €5,702.66 subject to possible submissions about which costs related to the ankle and neck injuries.