The Court of Appeal has dismissed Gerard Butler’s appeal against a High Court judgment that awarded him damages over a surgeon’s failure to report a risk of arthritis in his right hip before an earlier personal injury settlement.
The judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Faherty on 8 March 2024, concerned proceedings arising from injuries Butler sustained in a road traffic collision in 1980. The surgeon, the late Brian Regan, had treated Butler’s orthopaedic injuries and provided medical reports for his claim against the other driver. That claim settled in 1984 for IR£85,000, plus costs.
Butler later sued Regan, alleging that the reports failed to identify several injuries and their likely consequences, causing the earlier case to settle for too little. After a 20-day High Court trial in 2002, Mr Justice Abbott found Regan liable for failing to report the probability, or serious possibility, of severe arthritis in Butler’s right hip and a possible future hip replacement. The judge rejected the other principal injury claims, including those concerning the left hip, right knee, back and fractured sternum, and did not award damages for psychiatric injury.
The High Court assessed damages at IR£30,000, converted to €38,092.15, with interest from 16 February 1987. The parties had agreed special damages of €23,949.58. The judge also ordered costs at 17/19 of the amount to be taxed and ascertained.
On appeal, Butler challenged the findings on the other injuries, the rejection of psychiatric damages, the damages calculation, claims for aggravated or exemplary damages, and the fairness of the trial. The Court of Appeal said its role in reviewing factual findings was limited and that the trial judge had evidence supporting his conclusions. It found no basis to disturb those findings and upheld the damages methodology and award.
The appeal was dismissed on the grounds Butler pursued. The court did not decide the dispute over High Court costs in this judgment; it directed that the issue, along with costs of the appeal, be heard at a later listing scheduled for 19 March 2024. The judgment does not state the outcome of that costs hearing.