The High Court has assessed damages at €173,000 for Declan Hynes, who was injured when a road sweeper truck struck his car in December 2011. Kilkenny County Council and the truck’s driver, Leo Hogan, had admitted liability, so the hearing concerned the amount of damages rather than responsibility for the collision.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons awarded €115,000 in general damages: €70,000 for physical injuries and €45,000 for psychological injury. The parties had agreed special damages of €58,000, covering medical and travel expenses and loss of earnings. The court said judgment would be entered for €173,000. The parties were asked to agree an order on costs; if they could not, the issue was to return to court on 10 May 2022. The judgment did not determine costs.
The physical injuries involved Mr Hynes’s neck and lower back. He underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy in August 2012 after persistent back and leg symptoms, and later received further injections. He returned to work gradually from November 2012. The judge assessed €65,000 for past pain and suffering and €5,000 for future physical pain and suffering, finding that Mr Hynes had made a substantial recovery and that his remaining physical symptoms were minor.
The parties’ psychiatric evidence conflicted. Reports for Mr Hynes described initial post-traumatic stress symptoms followed by an adjustment disorder and clinical depression. A psychiatrist retained by the defendants concluded that he had not suffered a recognisable psychiatric illness, but, as the judge observed, the reports did not explain the basis for that conclusion or address the detail of the other expert evidence.
The judge said the court had only written medical reports, without oral evidence or cross-examination of the experts. Finding no reasoned basis on which to prefer the defendants’ psychiatrist, he accepted the detailed psychiatric evidence supporting Mr Hynes’s account. The judge found that the psychological injury had affected his family life, work, studies and pastimes. He awarded €45,000 for that injury and made no award for future psychological effects, noting evidence of significant progress and residual symptoms.
A separate supplemental judgment, delivered the same day, addressed whether sick pay received from Mr Hynes’s employer could be recovered as damages. The court held that its cost was not recoverable. That issue was distinct from the agreed €58,000 in special damages included in the €173,000 judgment.