The High Court awarded J.M. €300,000 in general damages for HIV-related injuries, subject to a deduction of €93,172 in “Murphy Monies”, and added €129,000 for loss of earnings. The award followed an appeal from the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal’s 2010 decision. The court also directed that the Tribunal’s provisional award wording form part of its order.
J.M., identified only by initials in the judgment, contracted HIV and hepatitis C from contaminated blood products administered for haemophilia. His appeal concerned the Tribunal’s decision on his HIV claim. The Tribunal had assessed general damages at €300,000 before deducting the Murphy Monies, awarded €60,000 for past earnings loss, and rejected a claim for future earnings loss on the basis that it had already been compensated in J.M.’s earlier hepatitis C claim.
The Minister for Health and Children argued that the earlier hepatitis C award should be considered to avoid double compensation. J.M. argued that the injuries from HIV were distinct and that his earlier earnings claim had not covered all income losses attributable to HIV. The judge held that the earlier general damages award had to be taken into account because the effects of the two infections overlapped in time. She concluded that €300,000 in general damages was appropriate in light of that prior award, then deducted €93,172 in Murphy Monies.
On earnings, the court found that J.M.’s earlier hepatitis C case had treated his capacity to work on the basis that he could work despite HIV, with hepatitis C symptoms preventing his return to work from the mid-1990s. The judge declined to let him reopen that case by arguing that HIV had prevented him from doing factory work. She nevertheless allowed losses not covered by the earlier decision.
The court awarded €25,000 for earnings loss between 1988 and 1992, when J.M. worked as a security officer, and €62,000 for past losses from 1992 to 2001. It also awarded €42,000 for future earnings loss, reflecting evidence that he might have worked beyond 65 to the then new pension age of 68. The €62,000 replaced the Tribunal’s €60,000 past-loss award, with a small increase for interest.
The judgment was delivered by Ms Justice Irvine on 23 February 2012. It records the appeal’s outcome and the terms included in the court order; it does not state that the court revisited the underlying hepatitis C award.