The High Court awarded Geraldine Barry €500,063.11 after assessing claims arising from the death of her partner, Christopher Sayer. Mercy University Hospital Limited admitted that a breach of duty in his post-operative care caused his death. The case proceeded as an assessment of damages; the judgment did not determine liability after a contested trial.
Mr Sayer died on 19 April 2010, aged 69. The court heard that he and Ms Barry had lived together since 2006. He was admitted to hospital for bowel surgery in March 2010. Ms Barry’s claim concerned the hospital’s observation of him on 16 and 17 March, when sepsis developed and he suffered brain injuries. She accepted that the original and emergency surgeries were not at issue and that the bowel leak causing sepsis was nobody’s fault. The court recorded the admitted breach as relating to the post-operative care that led to his death.
Ms Barry also sought damages for psychiatric injuries linked to the events surrounding his death. The judge preferred the evidence of her psychiatrist, who diagnosed PTSD, depression and a prolonged, complex grief reaction. The court found that her injuries had prevented her from working as a dental receptionist and administrator, and that she was unfit for employment on the open market at the time of judgment. It assessed that she would remain unable to work for two years, then return to part-time work for two years before likely becoming fit for full-time employment.
The court awarded €170,000 for pain and suffering, €99,981.69 for past and future earnings losses, €2,272.08 for other past expenses and €17,161 for future medical costs in the psychiatric injury claim. In the fatal injury claim, it allowed €134,939 for dependency and lost household services, €13,449.34 in special expenses, €76,761 for inheritance tax and €25,394 in solatium damages. It deducted €39,895 for the accelerated receipt of a pecuniary inheritance. The resulting fatal injury award was €210,648.34; the combined award was €500,063.11.
The judge did not accept Ms Barry’s estimate that Mr Sayer earned €400 a week as a musician because there was no documentary or other supporting evidence. Doing the best he could, he allowed half the claimed dependency loss from earnings. He accepted the valuation of Mr Sayer’s household services at €200 a week. The court also found that Ms Barry and Mr Sayer would probably have married, making the inheritance tax recoverable. It did not deduct the value of the Church Cross home, finding that Ms Barry had sold it under financial pressure and moved into her own investment property.