The High Court awarded Norma Gavigan €143,400.72 in damages after assessing injuries she sustained in a road traffic accident. Liability had been determined in an earlier judgment delivered on 24 June 2021; the only outstanding issue before the court was damages.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 2 July 2021, Ms Justice Reynolds awarded €90,000 in general damages. The parties had agreed special damages of €53,400.72, bringing the total judgment to €143,400.72.
The judge identified damage to the articular cartilage and underlying bone in Gavigan’s left ankle as her most significant injury. She had received steroid injections and undergone arthroscopy and microfracturing. The court accepted that the ankle had permanent damage and that she had a 20% chance of needing an ankle fusion or replacement in the future.
Gavigan also sustained a right scaphoid fracture, treated with a splint for six weeks. The fracture healed, and she accepted that later wrist symptoms and treatment were not related to the accident. Pain in her sacro-coccygeal region resolved. The court also found that soft tissue injuries to her jaw area had healed without lasting effects; it said there was no evidence of accident-related damage to her teeth.
The judgment considered her spinal complaints alongside a history of earlier road traffic accidents, spinal procedures and intermittent neck and upper spine pain. The judge accepted that the accident aggravated pre-existing cervical, thoracic and lumbar problems and that significant medical intervention followed. However, she also accepted the defence medical advisers’ view that the plaintiff’s ongoing thoracic and lower back complaints were most likely related to underlying problems, as the accident-related soft tissue injuries had substantially settled.
In setting general damages, the judge considered the combined effect of the injuries and the plaintiff’s complex medical history. She said it would be unjust to assess only the ankle injury, but that adding separate values for each injury could produce a disproportionate award. The court therefore made a single general damages award of €90,000, in addition to the agreed special damages.