The Court of Appeal reduced the damages awarded to Hany Boles for pain and suffering after a workplace injury, but upheld the High Court’s awards for past and future loss of earnings. The overall award fell from €257,000 to €227,000.
Mr Boles was injured on 25 May 2007 while helping move a conveyor at the ABP Ireland facility in Cahir, Co Tipperary. The High Court found that the conveyor struck the left side of his head as he crouched beneath it, and held ABP liable in negligence. It found no contributory negligence.
ABP appealed the High Court’s findings and awards. It argued, among other things, that the conveyor struck the top of Mr Boles’s head, that the damages for pain and suffering were excessive, and that he had failed to mitigate his loss by not returning to work. Mr Boles’s counsel defended the trial judge’s findings and awards.
The Court of Appeal declined to disturb the finding that the conveyor struck the left side of Mr Boles’s head. It relied on the trial judge’s assessment of the evidence, including a note made by ABP’s doctor on the day of the accident recording tenderness on the left side of Mr Boles’s scalp, and his later left-sided neck, shoulder and arm symptoms.
However, the court held that the High Court’s €90,000 award for pain and suffering was excessive and not just, fair and proportionate. It said Mr Boles had experienced physical pain for about 18 months to two years, but had not been admitted to hospital or undergone surgery. The court also considered evidence that his later somatic pain disorder could be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy and that his symptoms were expected to reduce after the trial.
The appeal court substituted €45,000 for pain and suffering to the date of trial and €15,000 for future pain and suffering, reducing those damages by €30,000.
It left intact the High Court’s awards of €115,000 for past loss of earnings and €50,000 for future loss of earnings. The court accepted that credible evidence supported the finding that Mr Boles was unable to work before trial and would need therapy before returning. It also rejected ABP’s mitigation argument, concluding that the trial judge was entitled to find Mr Boles unfit for work during that period.
The judgment, delivered on 25 October 2017, varied the High Court award to €227,000. The appeal court did not disturb the loss-of-earnings awards or the finding of liability.